NYK joins GCMD to accelerate shipping’s decarbonisation

Japan’s shipping company NYK has signed a five-year strategic partnership agreement with the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD).

As informed, the partnership will boast the centre’s capacity and efforts to conduct pilots and trials of low-carbon solutions to provide clear and specific pathways to decarbonisation of the global shipping industry.

Meanwhile, NYK carries a progressive outlook on decarbonisation and undertakes a whole of value chain approach, bringing together the regulatory authorities in Japan as well as key stakeholders in the private sector to work collaboratively to decarbonise shipping.

For GCMD’s pilot on developing an assurance framework for drop-in biofuels, NYK trialled VLSFO (B24) on board Lycaste Peace in February 2023, contributing to the successful completion of the second of five supply chains of the full pilot.

NYK is the first shipping company in Japan to independently obtain an approval-in-principle (AiP) for an ammonia bunkering vessel from ClassNK and is on track to retrofit Sakigake, an LNG-fuelled tugboat, with an ammonia-fuelled engine.

The resulting ammonia-fuelled tugboat (A-Tug) is expected to commence operation in 2024. Additionally, NYK is making efforts with partner companies to deliver an oceangoing ammonia-fueled ammonia gas carrier (AFAGC) by 2026.

The shipping company also participated in the GCMD-commissioned ammonia bunkering pilot safety study that was completed in April. As one of 22 study partners, NYK contributed “significantly to the safety study by sharing the learnings from its experience with ammonia”.

With this data and data from the four other supply chains, GCMD is developing a robust framework for quality and quantity assurance of drop-in biofuels and GHG accounting.

GCMD is also conducting a green premium cost-benefit analysis of deploying biofuels with NYK and other partners involved in the pilot.

“This Strategic Partnership agreement with NYK formalises and strengthens our existing relations in working on low-carbon solutions for international shipping. We look forward to levelling up the engagement with NYK to further accelerate collective efforts towards shipping’s decarbonisation,” Professor Lynn Loo, CEO of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, said.

“Through the partnership, I am looking forward to cooperating with GCMD and all its partners to realize the widespread social implementation of various decarbonisation solutions in our industry,” Takaya Soga, President and CEO of NYK concluded.