LR’s Zero Ready Framework ranks vessel readiness for zero carbon fuel operations from 1 to 5
New framework will provide increased clarity to shipping’s stakeholders in assessing the actual readiness of existing fleets and newly built vessels for zero carbon fuels.
Lloyd’s Register (LR) has launched a five-level framework for assessing the actual readiness of a vessel for the transition to zero carbon fuels. Published by LR’s Maritime Decarbonisation Hub, ‘Zero Ready Framework – helping to ensure shipping can deliver our zero-emissions future’, ranks vessel readiness for zero carbon fuel operations from 1 (highest level of readiness) to 5 (lowest level of readiness), and measured on a well-to-wake basis.
The framework has been created to offer clarity around the term ‘readiness’ which is used in multiple ways across the shipping industry. The rankings were developed based on observations that some shipowners have had a design for conversion to zero carbon fuel done as a paper exercise, without a plan for how the conversion would be carried out. Others have some or all the required equipment (for example: engine, tank, pipework, fuel management system) already installed. Another group of vessels have a dual fuel engine that could run on a zero-carbon fuel but may require an engine retrofit to do so.
An assessment of a container ship route in Southeast Asia by the LR Maritime Decarbonisation Hub found that, despite pushing forward of new initiatives by financiers, insurers and ship charterers to achieve zero emissions, 27% to 30% of vessels newly built between 2022 and 2050 will still require conversion to a different fuel in order to meet zero targets.
The framework has been developed through cross-industry consultation through a series of workshops with industry stakeholders.
