The Maritime Sector and Its Problematic Decarbonization: A Systematic Review of the Contribution of Alternative Fuels

Vinicius Andrade dos Santos, Patricia Silva () and Luís Manuel Ventura Serrano
Additional contact information
Vinicius Andrade dos Santos: MIT-Portugal Programme, Energy for Sustainability Initiative (EFS), Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, 3030-194 Coimbra, Portugal
Luís Manuel Ventura Serrano: School of Technology and Management, Polytechnic of Leiria, 2411-901 Leiria, Portugal

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-30

Abstract: The present study seeks to select the most important articles and reviews from the Web of Science database that approached alternative fuels towards the decarbonization of the maritime sector. Through a systematic review methodology, a combination of keywords and manual refining found a contribution of 103 works worldwide, the European continent accounting for 57% of all publications. Twenty-two types of fuels were cited by the authors, liquefied natural gas (LNG), hydrogen, and biodiesel contributing to 49% of the mentions. Greenhouse gases, sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter reductions are some of the main advantages of cleaner sources if used by the vessels. Nevertheless, there is a lack of practical research on new standards, engine performance, cost, and regulations from the academy to direct more stakeholders towards low carbon intensity in the shipping sector.

Keywords: low carbon fuels; greenhouse gases; maritime transportation; systematic review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/10/3571/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/10/3571/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:10:p:3571-:d:814898

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().