Correction: Energy efficiency of future hydrogen-based fuel supply chain routes for Germany’s maritime demand

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides comparative energy efficiency data for hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol supply chains, useful for techno-economic modeling.

🏢実務担当者:Informs decisions on fuel selection and supply chain infrastructure for maritime decarbonization.

🏛政策担当者:Highlights the role of pipeline infrastructure and import dependencies in achieving maritime emission reduction targets.

Maritime transport accounts for 80 % of the total volume of global trade (IEA 2023a). International Shipping which drives the global trade, accounts for approximately 2 % of global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (IEA 2023b). Moreover, to achieve the net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target for international shipping by 2050, as established by the International Maritime Organization, the implementation of multiple decarbonization measures is necessary (IMO 2024).Hydrogen-based fuel supply chains shall significantly influence the course of this transition. Other relevant aspects in the transition are fleet readiness, fuel availabilty and adoption of IMO guidelines for alternative maritime fuels. According to Clarkson's Green Technology Tracker (Gordon 2024), the proportion of alternative-fuel capable vessels has been folowing an increasing trend, with 41 % of the tonnage ordered in the first quarter of 2024 being alternative fuel capable. Orders were placed for a total of 310 alternative dual-fuel ships, including 109 LNG dual-fuel ships, 49 for methanol, 42 for LPG, 15 for ammonia, and 4 for hydrogen. In the scenario of deployment of hydrogen and its derivatives, ammonia and methanol are the two proposed alternative maritime fuels based on environmental and economic life cycle considerations. Hydrogen, on the other hand, could be a promising fuel for small, medium-size, and short-range ships (Raucci et al. 2023;Kanchiralla et al. 2024).Germany has set an ambitious target of up to 10 GW electrolysis capacity by 2030; however, domestic production alone will not be sufficient to meet its hydrogen demand, meaning substantial amounts will need to be imported (Dertinger et al. 2022). Following this, the total future demand of hydrogen derivatives, including ammonia and methanol, in Germany in 2030 and 2050, will also exhibit import requirements. Many studies have addressed the techno-economic aspects of global supply chains of these fuels. (Song et al. 2022) presented comparative study of energy efficiency of the maritime supply chains for hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, and natural gas with energy efficiency of 62.31 % for ammonia, 65.67 % for methanol and 47.78 % for hydrogen. Ammonia and methanol showed potential to replace LNG due to lower energy losses and efficient long-distance transport. Hydrogen requires efficient BOG handling systems to increase competitiveness. They concluded that these energy carriers could transport renewable energy across seas, but further analyses are needed. Although, the efficiency presented in this paper was for a majorly natural gas-based production pathway without CCS. (Noh et al. 2023) analyzed the environmental impact through LCA for compressed gaseous hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, LOHC and Ammonia, specifically focusing on ship-based transportation. Notably, all the above-mentioned derivatives are converted back to compressed gaseous hydrogen, forming the boundary condition of the methodology. They reported energy efficiency of supply chain for a shipping distance of 100 km ranges to be between 41-57 %. However, as the transport distance increases to 10,000 km efficiency decreases to 18-22 %. Previous investigations of the energy efficiency of hydrogen and derivatives transport, reported value ranging from 42-65% (including green, blue, grey pathways of hydrogen production) (Ishimoto et al. 2020;Al-Breiki and Bicer 2020b;Song et al. 2022;Noh et al. 2023;Staudt et al. 2024). However, there remains a gap in the literature concerning the maritime transport and utilization of these fuels, particularly in understanding the direct use of ammonia and methanol as maritime fuels, as well as the associated bunkering operations and infrastructure. This study leverages the existing pipeline infrastructure between Norway and Germany to demonstrate a near-future 2030 scenario, and also a 2050 scenario, where the construction of new pipeline may be considered. (Staudt et al. 2024) lays focus on import, contrasting with other studies that primary focus on transport without considering the specific demand of importing countries or supply ambitions of exporting countries. The study covers synthetic ammonia and methanol however, their analysis is limited to the supply chain processes after hydrogen production. (Sens et al. 2024) (Rahmat et al. 2023) focused on use of ammonia or methanol as transport vectors of hydrogen and their land based utilization. This paper demonstrates a potential for directly utilizing ammonia and methanol as alternative maritime fuel, thereby bridging the aforementioned gaps. It also accounts for bunkering operations for the specific port of Wilhelmshaven.When considering economic feasibility, studies have assessed the cost of hydrogen transportation and utilization in sectors such as heavy duty transport, aviation and steel manufacturing (Ratnakar et al. 2021;Sens et al. 2024;Ishimoto et al. 2020). It has been found that supply chains of compressed gaseous hydrogen exhibit the lowest overall supply costs, particularly when directly to hydrogen supply chains are due to substantial and energy for could from LNG liquid hydrogen carriers have the supply due to the energy for and their limited hydrogen capacity (Sens et al. 2024). However, in the of maritime transport, is not as fuels such as ammonia and methanol be et al. for importing methanol from to Germany or importing hydrogen to Germany and methanol It was reported that for were in However, not the energy efficiency of the processes in the supply hydrogen production hydrogen production are to from a in to by 2030 and further to by 2050 and 2024). cost is to the hydrogen production This the of import in the of new infrastructure will be et al. 2024) have that for infrastructure of hydrogen and ammonia transport, are for up to are for km and with a capacity of However, a of existing pipeline as well as based shipping with a focus on maritime fuels is from existing this paper to this gap from a 2030 and 2050 et al. analyzed the cost to the shipping on potential international transport of methanol, liquid ammonia, and and concluded that methanol has the lowest hydrogen shipping by ammonia, and Moreover, the also shipping on the and are on the and is reported by et al. 2024) that the potential shipping of ammonia and fuels are to be the when to liquid hydrogen. shipping a of the overall energy supply cost in the importing studies are to the efficient energy from a is to import from a import with potential production and are in this In of this the of the presented is to the supply chain efficiency of maritime fuels gaseous hydrogen, ammonia and methanol, considering the transport and bunkering of the fuel supply Ammonia and methanol established for transport on a shipping and infrastructure. gaseous hydrogen, on the other hand, be which are for natural gas could also be after to and et al. this hydrogen is electrolysis with renewable to as hydrogen, or with and to as hydrogen et al. 2022). 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• openalex https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2025.1704363first seen 2026-08-02 17:15:16