The bigger picture of clean shipping
Solvang’s strategy is to pick the shortest open route to emission cuts. Currently, that route is efficiency optimization and cleaning exhaust gas – including CO2 – from conventional fuel operation.
Solvang’s environmental plan is built on a system-level assessment of energy use, looking at the full well-to-wake (WTW) impact of maritime fuels. Ever since emission-free alternative fuels were introduced some ten years ago, Solvang has questioned whether the global energy system is able to supply sufficient volumes of such fuels for largescale deep-sea operations.
That concern has since increased. Today, the scarcity and rising cost of decarbonization of e-fuels pose a challenge to the IMO’s net-zero ambitions. Therefore, Solvang assesses that alternative fuels are important for the global energy transition, but there may be other measures that
are more efficient for emission cuts in deep-sea shipping:
Optimizing conventional operations, combined with total emission control, including onboard carbon capture.
Well-to-wake calculations
Like more than 95% of the world’s deep sea vessels, Solvang’s entire fleet operates on conventional maritime fuels — marine gas oil (MGO) and, most frequently, heavy fuel oil (HFO).
When assessing the full life cycle of energy from upstream production and processing to its final use for cargo transport, the environmental characteristics of HFO become clearer. As a residual fuel, HFO is energy-efficient to produce, with minimal upstream losses compared to highly processed alternatives.
When conventional fuel operation is combined with optimized hull design, machinery, and operational practices, as well as Solvang’s total emission control system, the vessels comply with the strictest IMO and EU environmental requirements.
In comparison, alternative fuels like hydrogen, synthetic e-fuels, or electricity require substantial amounts of energy to produce upstream – often including less environmental input such as coal energy.
Sharing limited supply
From a systems perspective, Solvang’s conventional fuel approach avoids straining electricity grids, renewable generation capacity, and hydrogen production — all of which are exploited already. Instead, Solvang contributes
to saving limited zero-emission fuels for sectors with fewer alternatives, such as aviation and certain industrial processes.
While staying open to positive changes in global energy supplies, Solvang continues to use conventional fuels efficiently while preparing to neutralize a significant share of their emissions through OCCS – onboard carbon capture
and storage. This way, we hope to contribute to a more balanced and realistic energy transition, where limited resources are deployed where they create the greatest output.
Flexibility over lock-in
A defining feature of Solvang’s environmental plan is technological flexibility. No single solution currently satisfies all requirements for scalability, safety, energy efficiency, or climate performance. Recognizing this, Solvang designs newbuildings to be future-fuel ready, allowing extra space for emission-control systems and adaptable energy layouts, as well as catering for onboard carbon capture and storage installations.
Conventional fuels are not treated as an end state, but as a platform – optimized, cleaned, and controlled – to bridge the transition toward a lower-emission future.
Total energy input Well-To-Wake / Delivered propulsion energy for available fuel types
E-fuels have a large energy loss during production. The global lack of GHG-neutral electricity from renewable sources make e-fuels unfit for deep sea shipping today.
