Alternative Fuels for Shipping

Every ship ordered today is a bet on a fuel, and for the first time in a century, the industry cannot agree on which one. The orderbook splits across LNG, methanol, LPG, ammonia and hydrogen, with biofuels blending into existing tanks and batteries, e-fuels and even nuclear waiting at different distances behind them.

This course does not pick a winner, because the honest answer is that no single fuel wins everywhere. Instead it gives you the tools professionals use to compare them: energy per tonne and per cubic metre of tank, well-to- wake versus tank-to-wake emissions, safety character, engine and bunkering readiness, and cost. Lesson 2 builds that framework; lessons 3 to 11 then walk through each fuel with the same questions, so the differences stand out instead of blurring together. The closing lesson turns to the decision itself: what a fuel-ready notation really buys, when a conversion pays, and how an owner chooses under genuine uncertainty.

Numbers are given wherever they exist: orderbook counts, storage temperatures, toxicity thresholds, blend limits. By the end you should be able to read a fuel headline, place the claim on the right axis, and ask the one question the press release skipped.