An important study, long called for by environmentalists, will get underway shortly – shipping’s first-ever full cradle-to-grave lifecycle assessment of a vessel from the raw materials dug from a mine needed to manufacture a hull block to the welder’s torch at its life-end.
Lloyd’s Register, Knutsen, HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries announced the study at the Nor-Shipping trade fair going on this week in Oslo.
The lifecycle assessment will provide the detailed environmental impact of an identified LNG carrier and its carbon emissions, quantifying each construction stage’s raw material usage, energy inputs and environmental releases as well as the emissions for the vessel’s operations and eventual disposal.
The study will determine the environmental output of the vessel build process, helping organisations to improve their regulatory readiness and provide estimations on the impacts of future regulations, along with data to provide the basis for sustainability strategies.
Jarle Østenstad, director of newbuilding and innovation at shipowner Knutsen, said: “We have for a long time been interested in finding out lifetime CO2 emissions from a ship. This project will give interesting results to be used for further optimisation of the fleet and to do more qualified assessments for deciding whether to extend the lifetime of vessels, do conversions/upgrades or build new vessels in order to minimise emissions.”
