Availability
Apart from its price, a future fuel must be available to the market in sufficient quantity. All fuel alternatives discussed here could meet the requirements of the shipping industry for the next ten years, assuming only minor growth in shipping applications. The question is what would happen if a fuel alternative were to become so attractive that a large number of operators would want to adopt it for their ships within a short period of time.
For all alternative fuels discussed here, with the exception of LNG, a rapid rise in demand would require massive investments in production capacity. In theory, a switchover of the entire global fleet to LNG would be possible today, since the current LNG production is higher than the shipping industry’s energy requirement and the share of LNG in the total gas market is only 10%. Furthermore, LPG could likewise cover the energy need of the global fleet; however, in this case, no LPG would be left for other users.