The Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) has launched a new training course titled 'Fundamentals of Marine Green Fuels', aimed at equipping maritime professionals with knowledge of alternative fuels and decarbonisation requirements as regulatory and commercial pressure on the industry grows.

The course, which has already run its first session, brought together participants from across maritime operations to examine the evolving marine fuel landscape. It was led by Dr Sanjay C Kuttan and Mr Qin Aohan, whose sessions combined structured instruction with open discussion and industry examples.

A central element of the course was its focus on the end-to-end supply chain of marine green fuels—tracing how fuels move from feedstock origin to onboard combustion. The curriculum covered major alternative fuels including methanol, ammonia and hydrogen, as well as their respective production pathways, with an emphasis on how upstream choices influence fuel availability, cost and lifecycle emissions.

Emissions accounting formed another core component. Participants compared well-to-wake (WtW) and tank-to-wake (TtW) emissions frameworks, with trainers walking the group through each framework’s mechanisms and applications. According to the SSA, this element of the course was designed to give participants clarity on how full lifecycle emissions assessments can influence fleet strategies, chartering decisions and long-term investment planning.

The course also addressed the practical challenges of scaling alternative fuels, with participants assessing infrastructure readiness and operational constraints across different fuel pathways. Discussions examined feedstock availability and sustainability, supply chain reliability and logistics, and cost competitiveness against conventional fuels.

To ground the material in regional practice, the course featured case studies from ASEAN and China, exploring how governments, ports and industry players are developing green fuel ecosystems. Trainers highlighted the role of policy support, investment and industrial capacity in these markets.

The SSA said future runs of the course would be listed on its courses calendar, and that interested parties could contact trainingsupport@ssa.org.sg to be notified of upcoming training dates.