A review of low and zero carbon fuel technologies: Achieving ship carbon reduction targets

The shipping industry has paid unprecedented attention to reducing emissions and pollution in recent years. In particular, the International Maritime Organization has enacted many regulations on ship emissions, and the industry has increasingly focused on the development and application of low-carbon marine fuels. The use of low carbon alternative fuels can effectively solve the current environmental and energy problems. At present, the alternative fuels available for ships include liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, methanol, biodiesel, hydrogen and ammonia, etc. In the short term, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, methanol technology is more mature, which can be applied to ships. In the long term, biodiesel, hydrogen fuel and ammonia fuel will inevitably become the mainstream of alternative fuels for ships. However, there are some challenges in the use of alternative fuels, such as leakage of liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, low calorific value of methanol and biodiesel, and difficult storage of hydrogen and ammonia. This work will summarize and analyze the utilization potentiality of low carbon alternative fuel, low carbon combustion technologies for ships, and some of the new clean power technologies, which has important guiding significance for the development of low carbon fuel for ships in the future.