Cruise industry's adoption of biofuel has limited range

10.04.2024 - 17:05 / travelweekly.com / Jason Liberty

Large cruise companies began running trials with biofuels two years ago, but their executives say they are far from being able to use it to power their ships regularly.

Instead, they are continuing to test and study biofuels as a drop-in fuel source in the short term while awaiting cleaner fuels like green methanol, green hydrogen or electric liquefied natural gas to become available at scale.

"It's a journey, right?" Jason Liberty, CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, told reporters in January while on the Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean International's first LNG-fueled ship. "It will take time for those fuels to come and be available."

Royal Caribbean is among the lines that have undertaken trials of biofuel use, which it did last year in Europe, but it faces a lack of biofuel, a supply issue that's facing not only the cruise industry but other sectors.

Cruise lines are under pressure, both from within the industry and outside of it, to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. But the lack of sufficient alternative fuels has slowed progress toward CLIA's goal that the industry reach net-zero carbon by 2050.

CLIA has suggested that achieving that goal will happen in stages.

From now through 2030, cruise lines will have to maximize energy efficiency and use alternatives such as biofuel when they can. The decade after, newbuild ships must rely on fuels such as methane or methanol. From 2040 to 2050, reaching the net-zero target will mean using green hydrogen and bio-based feedstocks derived from renewable energy and electrolysis, the association said.

Meanwhile, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) wants the maritime industry to hit as much as 10% alternative fuel usage by 2030. And the European Union's Fit for 55 plan targets reducing the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, requiring the entire maritime sector, including cruise, to transition to 2% use of alternative fuels in 2025 and 6% by 2030.

The EU timeline is not aggressive enough, said Walter Nadolny, professor emeritus of marine transportation and global business at the State University of New York Maritime College.

"The science is telling us 2023 was the hottest year on record, and we ain't seen nothing yet," he said.

Biofuel is an easy answer for older ships because they are the easiest conversion, said Nadolny, who has served as a delegate to the IMO's marine environmental pollution committee. "All you do is put biofuels in your bunkers, and you're there."

Pilot programs test the waters

Across the cruise industry, 32 pilot programs are testing sustainable fuels, according to CLIA's 2023 sustainability report. Of those programs, 24 involve ships' trial use of biofuels, which are produced by purifying raw materials like waste