As FuelEU Maritime regulations take effect in 2025, shipping companies must meet stricter greenhouse gas targets. Keerthivash Chellamalai from Manta Marine Technologies highlights the need for more industry support to navigate these changes. MMT is actively guiding the sector towards sustainable solutions, including alternative fuels and Onshore Power Supply (OPS), to ensure a greener and more compliant maritime future.
With the FuelEU Maritime regulation rapidly approaching uniform application for all commercial ships over 5000GT from 2025, it is crucial to ask the question: "Do shipping companies (ISM responsible companies) require additional tools and support from regulatory bodies and companies like ours, to fully understand the technical aspects of the regulation?"
At a high level, each vessel engaging in intra-EU and extra-EU voyages will need to achieve a greenhouse gas intensity target accounting for 100% and 50% of the energy consumed on board, respectively. This tank-to-wake emission target, as we now know, is independent of the tonnage or the distance traveled. This means that the energy source(s) of the vessels are key to understanding and navigating the FuelEU regulation for operators of existing fleets. Interestingly, a quick analysis of the 2023 IMODCS data reveals that over 93% of fuel consumption by commercial vessels is fossil-based (excluding fossil LNG). Consequently, over 90% of the existing fleet (by gross tonnage) in operation today, when assessed individually, would fail to meet the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity target. In other words, a business-as-usual approach would result in the vessel having a negative 'compliance balance' for the 2025 reporting year.
In the context of a shipping company, understanding the workings of this regulation extends beyond simply filing the monitoring plan, which outlines the methodology for ensuring the availability of information necessary to determine the GHG intensity of the energy used onboard. In the medium term (i.e., up to 2035), this involves strategizing the optimal combination of conventional fossil fuels and available alternative fuels such as Renewable Energy Directive (RED II)-compliant biofuels and e-fuels, while prioritizing the adoption of mature zero-emission technologies. The zero emission technologies in many cases are more readily deployable in the short term, given the uncertain availability of alternative fuels.
Additionally, it is vital that the affected shipping companies are thoroughly aware of the core concept of compliance balance (surplus/deficit) and the conditions for the applicability of banking, borrowing, and pooling of said balance. Given the complexities of the technical elements of the regulation, the lack of uniform guidance means that it is necessary to understand REDII and FuelEU regulations in combination with parts of the EU Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) Regulation and Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) in order to draw useful conclusions from the analysis of an individual vessel or fleet.
Against this backdrop, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, along with industry experts, has come together under the European Sustainable Shipping Forum's (ESSF) subgroup, Sustainable Alternative Power for Shipping (SAPS), to contribute to the joint development of Guidance on FuelEU Maritime (similar to the 2024 Guidance on ETS and MRV for shipping companies). More than 40 representatives from the EU member states, shipping companies, fuel suppliers, technology providers, and industry associations will be working together through Q1 2025 with the goal of demystifying calculations involved in the FuelEU regulation. The aim is to develop calculation examples to demonstrate the application of the FuelEU methodology and to support the development of a Guidance document before mid-2025.
Manta Marine Technologies (MMT) has also been involved in this SAPS FuelEU Calculations workstream on behalf of the SEA Europe Technical and Environmental Committee since November 2024. With our in-house ability to quantitatively analyze the impact of FuelEU regulations based on publicly available 2022 and 2023 MRV emission reports, MMT is well placed to support ship owners and operators in deriving value from this initiative, despite not being a direct member of ESSF subgroups.
Drawing from our in-house analysis of MRV data, it is clear that the period from 2025 to 2035 will be especially challenging for operators who fail to adapt to the new reality brought about by FuelEU (and the impending IMO GFS). MMT believes that-informed ship operators can strategically transform their existing fossil-fuel-powered fleets, operating extensively across European member states into FuelEU compliance surplus unit generators by adopting mature substitute energy sources (such as Onshore Power Supply (OPS) and onboard power generation at sea). A theoretical case in point from MMT’s analysis is that the majority of Ro-Pax vessels operating in European waters and calling at the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) seaports can easily convert their FuelEU compliance deficit (which leads to large penalties) into a compliance surplus by becoming early adopters of OPS. As part of this workstream, MMT hopes to highlight such beneficial examples, which may help the industry — and ultimately, the market forces—evolve in the direction envisioned by the European Green Deal.
In continuing our efforts to be at the forefront of decarbonizing shipping, we will actively engage in the upcoming FuelEU OPS workstream within ESSF SAPS to help address challenges related to the adoption of OPS in ships and ports. By contributing to these initiatives, MMT hopes to guide the industry toward a more sustainable and compliant future, helping ship owners and operators adapt to the evolving regulatory landscape. Our involvement in these workstream reflects our commitment to ensuring that the maritime sector not only meets the FuelEU requirements but thrives in an increasingly green economy.
Keerthivash Chellamalai is a mechanical engineer with over six years of experience at Manta Marine Technologies (MMT). His expertise lies in securing statutory approvals for marine exhaust abatement systems and ensuring compliance with relevant technical requirements for MMT's Shore power systems. With a strong focus on regulatory affairs, Keerthivash specializes in navigating complex EU and IMO regulations impacting the maritime industry. His recent work includes mapping these evolving regulations and collaborating with industry stakeholders to address ongoing regulatory changes.
