CONSIDERATIONS OF TRAINING ASPECTS FOR SEAFARERS ON SHIPS POWERED BY
AMMONIA, METHANOL AND HYDROGEN
As the maritime industry moves towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is a critical need to explore alternative
fuels. The Maritime Just Transition Task Force (MJTTF), in collaboration with the International Maritime Organization (IMO)
Secretariat with support from Lloyd’s Register Foundation, has initiated a project to develop the training materials necessary
for seafarers to safely use the new zero and near-zero GHG emission fuels and draft associated competency standards, as
current competencies under the Seafarers’ Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Code do not yet cover these areas
specifically. The project is titled ‘Baseline Training Framework
for Seafarers in Decarbonization’.
To achieve this, a series of workshops were conducted focusing on the safe use of ammonia, methanol and hydrogen as marine
fuels. These workshops aimed to gather industry perceptions on the necessary changes for seafarers transitioning from
conventional fuels to alternative fuels, and to identify the possible new or modified competencies and training required to enable
such a transition.
This consolidated report provides a distilled summary of the objectives, methodology, findings and conclusions acquired from
12 hybrid workshops that engaged 116 participants and produced substantial considerations for each fuel. Successful completion
of the first part of the MJTTF training project marks the beginning of a new chapter in the upskilling and reskilling of seafarers
to stand up to the decarbonization challenges of shipping.
In essence, the output of the workshops will serve as the foundation or work in progress to be completed on proposing new training
frameworks and competency standards for seafarers handling these three alternative fuels.
