Super Cool: Alaska Cruise Line Experiments with new Fuel

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Early this month, a mobile floating gas station of sorts pulled up alongside the towering cruise ship Star Princess at Seattle’s Pier 91 terminal. For the next eight hours the refueling crew made news by pumping a large volume of super-cooled natural gas into the bowels of the cruise liner.

The newest cruise ship operated by Princess Cruises is the first oceangoing vessel to be refueled in Seattle with liquefied natural gas (LNG). It could be the start of a new way of fueling the Alaska cruise ships that operate out of Seattle all summer.

“I’m just delighted to see there’s no smoke coming out of the cruise ship. We’re plugged in. We’re burning the cleanest gas you can right now,” Port of Seattle Commissioner Fred Felleman said while observing from an adjacent pier. “Right now, this is about as good as it gets in the industry.”

The steadily-growing fleet of mammoth cruise ships that ply the Inside Passage have a sizable carbon footprint – ship fuel being the biggest single component. Cruise line executives acknowledge that they need to do their part to soften the environmental impact. The major cruise lines in the Alaska market, through their trade association, have committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions from ship operations by 2050. The challenge until now has been finding an alternative fuel that is cost-competitive and available at scale locally.

https://www.postalley.org/2026/05/20/super-cool-alaska-cruise-line-experiments-with-new-fuel/

[littlemissmartypants]

1. How long before we hear about the first LNG spill in the pristine Alaskan wilderness?

[hunter]

2. The greatest danger of a spill would be fire on the ship.

LNG evaporates, it doesn't stay around to wash up on beaches or harm wildlife like fuel oil.

The methane is, of course, a greenhouse gas, but compared to overall worldwide emissions of methane the loss of the fuel would be a drop in the bucket.

LNG burns cleaner than fuel oil, no smoke, but the overall emissions of greenhouse gasses by ships using it a fuel may be fairly similar to ships using fuel oil.

The ethics of fossil fueled cruise ships is another issue, but affluent people are always going to have a huge environmental footprint whatever they do.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. So it's barely liquid.