K Line eyes tougher targets on its decarbonization path

Japanese shipping major Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) aims to improve its CO2 emissions efficiency by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2008 levels, the company revealed announcing revision of its environmental vision for 2050.

Achieving the target will allow the company to surpass the IMO target of a 40 percent improvement.

“As an environmental front runner, we will continue to aim at providing more environmentally low-loaded and highly efficient services for more people throughout the world,” K Line said.

The two main factors in the revised targets are the need to decarbonize and to reduce the company’s environmental impact to as close to zero as possible.

In order to achieve this, K Line is working on a multitude of initiatives including the incorporation of LNG-fueled carriers, exploring the potential of wind-assisted propulsion through demonstration and proliferation of the Seawing automated kite systems and efficiency improvements on its fleet as well as green ship recycling.

Furthermore, K Line is working on establishing a business to provide LNG as a fuel for ships and is also looking at new fuels including methane, ammonia and hydrogen as well as technologies like on board CO2 capture and storage.

As reported earlier, K Line is taking part in CO2-free Hydrogen Energy Supply-chain Technology Research Association (HySTRA).

The group is developing and demonstrating technologies needed to create an efficient supply chain for the production, transport, storage and use for CO2-free hydrogen produced using brown coal. The group is aiming for the supply chain to support commercialization by around 2030.

Under the revised targets, K Line wants to improve CO2 emission efficiency by 70 percent over 2008 levels by 2050.

The action plan for achieving this target includes steps like launching flagships featuring the latest technologies to improve efficiency, launching zero-emissions flagships, entering the supply chain business of new, zero-emission energy, contributing to the promotion of carbon capture and reuse as well as reducing CO2 emissions over vessel lifecycles.