Guidelines on life cycle GHG intensity of marine fuels (LCA Guidelines) 21.07.2024 20:21These Guidelines provide guidance on life cycle GHG intensity assessment for all fuels and other energy carriers (e.g. electricity) used on board a ship and aim at covering the whole fuel life cycle (with specific boundaries), from feedstock extraction/cultivation/ recovery, feedstock conversion to a fuel product, transportation as well as distribution/bunkering, and fuel utilization on board a ship.
These Guidelines also specify sustainability themes/aspects for marine fuels and define a Fuel Lifecycle Label (FLL), which carries information about fuel type, feedstock (feedstock type and feedstock nature/carbon source), conversion/production process (process type and energy used in the process), GHG emission factors, information on fuel blends and sustainability themes/aspects.
The scope of these Guidelines is to address well-to-tank (WtT), tank-to wake (TtW), and well-to-wake (WtW) GHG intensity and sustainability themes/aspects related to marine fuels/energy carriers (e.g. electricity for shore power) used for ship propulsion and power generation onboard. The relevant GHGs included are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). These guidelines are not intended to provide guidance for a complete IMO GHG inventory for international shipping.
Emissions from cargo (e.g. volatile organic compounds (VOC)), or use of refrigerants are not included; other short-lived climate forcers and precursors such as non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), sulphur oxides (SOx), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM) and Black Carbon are not part of the scope of these LCA guidelines.
The figure below shows a generic WtW supply chain for a fuel:
The bunkering marks the last step in the WtT phase before the TtW phase starts.
A life cycle assessment (LCA) based approach provides a holistic assessment of the product/service/system from well-to-wake using data specific to the activity considered. The LCA methodology follows the marine fuel from feedstock sourcing to its utilization onboard ships and assesses its life cycle GHG intensity. This approach, applied within the boundaries of the WtW GHG emissions quantification, is applicable across all geographical regions, where emissions occur and allows for quantifying the GHG intensity over the entire fuel/energy supply chain.
