Knowledge

Keyword: emission reduction

report

DMA-DTU project on Market Based Measures (MBMs)

Psaraftis, Harilaos N.; Zis, Thalis; Lagouvardou, Sotiria

This report is in the context of the DMA-DTU project on Market Based Measures (MBMs) The aim of this project is to provide an overview and discussion of potential Market Based Measures under the Initial IMO Strategy for the reduction of green house gas (GHG) emissions from ships. In this context, some related developments are also seen as directly relevant to the scope of the project, mainly in the context of the possible inclusion of shipping into the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). In 2010 an Expert Group was appointed by the IMO’s Secretary General after solicitation of member states and was tasked to evaluate as many as eleven (11) separate MBM proposals, submitted by various member states and other organizations. All MBM proposals described programs and procedures that would target GHG reductions through either ‘in-sector’ emissions reductions from shipping, or ‘out-of-sector’ reductions via the collection of funds to be used for mitigation activities in other sectors that would contribute towards global reduction of GHG emissions.

/ 2020
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paper

Benefit of speed reduction for ships in different weather conditions

Taskar, Bhushan; Andersen, Poul

Currently, the shipping industry is facing a great challenge of reducing emissions. Reducing ship speeds will reduce the emissions in the immediate future with no additional infrastructure. However, a detailed investigation is required to verify the claim that a 10% speed reduction would lead to 19% fuel savings (Faber et al., 2012).

This paper investigates fuel savings due to speed reduction using detailed modeling of ship performance. Three container ships, two bulk carriers, and one tanker, representative of the shipping fleet, have been designed. Voyages have been simulated by modeling calm water resistance, wave resistance, propulsion efficiency, and engine limits. Six ships have been simulated in various weather conditions at different speeds. Potential fuel savings have been estimated for a range of speed reductions in realistic weather.

It is concluded that the common assumption of cubic speed-power relation can cause a significant error in the estimation of bunker consumption. Simulations in different seasons have revealed that fuel savings due to speed reduction are highly weather dependent. Therefore, a simple way to include the effect of weather in shipping transport models has been proposed.

Speed reduction can lead to an increase in the number of ships to fulfill the transport demand. Therefore, the emission reduction potential of speed reduction strategy, after accounting for the additional ships, has been studied. Surprisingly, when the speed is reduced by 30%, fuel savings vary from 2% to 45% depending on ship type, size and weather conditions. Fuel savings further reduce when the auxiliary engines are considered.

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, Volume 85 / 2020
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paper

A Literature Survey on Market-Based Measures for the Decarbonization of Shipping

Lagouvardou, Sotiria; Psaraftis, Harilaos N.; Zis, Thalis

This paper aims to conduct an updated literature survey on the Market-Based Measures (MBMs) currently being proposed by various member states and organizations at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) or by the scientific and grey literature as a cost-effective solution to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships. Τhe paper collects, summarizes, and categorizes the different proposals to provide a clear understanding of the existing discussions on the field and also identifies the areas of prior investigation in order to prevent duplication and to avoid the future discussion at the IMO to start from scratch. Relevant European Union (EU) action on MBMs is also described. Furthermore, the study identifies inconsistencies, gaps in research, conflicting studies, or unanswered questions that form challenges for the implementation of any environmental policy at a global level for shipping. Finally, by providing foundational knowledge on the topic of MBMs for shipping and by exploring inadequately investigated areas, the study addresses concrete research questions that can be investigated and resolved by the scientific and shipping community

Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 3953 / 2020
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paper

Energy Management of Hybrid Diesel/Battery Ships in Multidisciplinary Emission Policy Areas

Banaei, Mohsen; Ghanami, Fatemeh; Rafiei, Mehdi; Boudjadar, Jalil; Khooban, Mohammad Hassan

All-electric ships, and especially the hybrid ones with diesel generators and batteries, have attracted the attention of maritime industry in the last years due to their less emission and higher efficiency. The variant emission policies in different sailing areas and the impact of physical and environmental phenomena on ships energy consumption are two interesting and serious concepts in the maritime issues. In this paper, an efficient energy management strategy is proposed for a hybrid vessel that can effectively consider the emission policies and apply the impacts of ship resistant, wind direction and sea state on the ships propulsion. In addition, the possibility and impact of charging and discharging the carried electrical vehicles’ batteries by the ship is investigated. All mentioned matters are mathematically formulated and a general model of the system is extracted. The resulted model and real data are utilized for the proposed energy management strategy. A genetic algorithm is used in MATLAB software to obtain the optimal solution for a specific trip of the ship. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed energy management method in economical and reliable operation of the ship considering the different emission control policies and weather condition impacts.

Energies 2020, 13(16), 4179 / 2020
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paper

A Comparative Analysis of Optimal Operation Scenarios in Hybrid Emission-Free Ferry Ships

Banaei, Mohsen; Rafiei, Mehdi; Boudjadar, Jalil; Khooban, Mohammad Hassan

The utilization of green energy resources for supplying energy to ships in the marine industry has received increasing attention during the last years, where different green resource combinations and control strategies have been used. This article considers a ferry ship supplied by fuel cells (FCs) and batteries as the main sources of ship's power. Based on the designers' and owners' preferences, different scenarios can be considered for managing the operation of the FCs and batteries in all-electric marine power systems. In this article, while considering different constraints of the system, six operating scenarios for the set of FCs and batteries are proposed. Impacts of each proposed scenario on the optimal daily scheduling of FCs and batteries and operation costs of the ship are calculated using a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model. Model predictive control (MPC) is also applied to consider the deviations from hourly forecast demand. Moreover, since the efficiency of FCs varies for different output powers, the impacts of applying a linear model for FCs' efficiency are compared with the proposed nonlinear model and its related deviations from the optimal operation of the ship are investigated. The proposed model is solved by GAMS software using actual system data and the simulation results are discussed. Finally, detailed real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulation outcomes and comparative analysis are presented to confirm the adaptation capability of the proposed strategy.

IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification ( Volume: 6, Issue: 1, March 2020) / 2020
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paper

Energy Management of a Zero-Emission Ferry Boat With a Fuel-Cell-Based Hybrid Energy System: Feasibility Assessment

Rafiei, Mehdi; Boudjadar, Jalil; Khooban, Mohammad Hassan

Due to the increasing impacts of ships pollutants on the environment and the preventive laws that are tightening every day, the utilization of all-electric ships is a recent emerging technology. Being a promising technology, the usage of fuel cells as the main energy resource of marine vessels is an interesting choice. In this article, an all-electric hybrid energy system with zero emission based on fuel cell, battery, and cold-ironing is proposed and analyzed. To this end, actual data of a ferry boat, including load profiles and paths, are considered to assess the feasibility of the proposed energy system. The configuration of the boat and energy resources as well as the problem constraints are modeled and analyzed. Finally, the boat's energy management in hourly form for a one-day period is implemented. The improved sine cosine algorithm is used for the power dispatch optimization, and all models are implemented in MATLAB software. Based on the analysis results, the proposed hybrid system and the energy management method have high performance as an applicable method for the marine vessels. In addition, to be a zero-emission ship, the proposed system has an acceptable energy cost.

IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics ( Volume: 68, Issue: 2, Feb. 2021) / 2020
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paper

Decarbonization of Maritime Transport: Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Harilaos N. Psaraftis*, Christos A. Kontovas

The purpose of this paper is to assess the status and prospects of the decarbonization of maritime transport. Already more than two years have passed since the landmark decision of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in April 2018, which entailed ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships. The paper attempts to address the following three questions: (a) where do we stand with respect to GHG emissions from ships, (b) how is the Initial IMO Strategy progressing, and (c) what should be done to move ahead? To that effect, our methodology includes commenting on some of the key issues addressed by the recently released 4th IMO GHG study, assessing progress at the IMO since 2018, and finally identifying other issues that we consider relevant and important as regards maritime GHG emissions, such as for instance the role of the European Green Deal and how this may interact with the IMO process. Even though the approach of the paper is to a significant extent qualitative, some key quantitative and modelling aspects are considered as well. On the basis of our analysis, our main conjecture is that there is not yet light at the end of the tunnel with respect to decarbonizing maritime transport.

Sustainability / 2020
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report

Maritime industry processes in the Baltic Sea Region: Synthesis of eco-inefficiencies and the potential of digital technologies for solving them

Elisa Aro, Niels Gorm Maly Rytter, Teemu Itälinna

ECOPRODIGI (2017-2020) is an Interreg Baltic Sea Region flagship project, which links research organisations, enterprises, associations and business support organisations. Altogether, 21 partners jointly investigate the most critical eco-inefficiencies in maritime processes in the Baltic Sea Region as well as develop and pilot digital solutions for improving the eco-efficiency by focusing on three specific cases: 1) digital performance monitoring of vessels, 2) cargo stowage optimisation at ports and 3) process optimisation at shipyards. Furthermore, looking towards the future, the project partners, on one hand, create a digitalisation roadmap and training modules for future decision makers in the maritime industry but also reach out to policymakers to engage them in discussion regarding how they can support the digital change. This report provides an overview of the project and main findings achieved to date, describes the main eco-inefficiencies identified and presents the potential of digital technologies and new concepts for improving them. Also, as the current digital transformation relates to the way how changes are managed in organisations, this report presents the main challenges and requirements identified in the process of moving towards more digitalised business operations. Finally, the last section looks at the maritime sector from a broader perspective and provides some ideas about the most likely future developments. The main findings of the project so far indicate that major improvements in eco-efficiency can be carried out in the maritime industry. They can be summarised as follows: 1) In the first case, ‘digital performance monitoring’, the project partners estimate, for instance, that fuel consumption and emissions can potentially be reduced by 2-20% based on data and analysis from distinct ship segments, routes and their baseline situations. The reductions are possible to achieve by taking such actions as capitalising on the latest digital technologies, utilising and analysing real-time operational data and vessel performance, anticipating operating conditions and maintenance of the ship and its components, changing working methods and improving practices as well as placing a focus on the training of personnel. 2) In the second case, ‘cargo stowage optimisation’ the project partners identified a set of eco-efficiency bottlenecks in the cargo stowage processes at ports that can be subject to improvement. The use of advanced digital technologies can contribute to more efficient utilisation of vessels and terminal operations. The port stays can be reduced, and, thereby, vessels can sail more slowly and reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Moreover, when stability calculations improve due to further digitalisation of cargo unit data, the ship can be loaded more optimally and the amount of ballast water can potentially be decreased without compromising safety, which again reduces fuel consumption on the sea leg. It is estimated that fuel consumption and emissions can potentially be reduced by 2-10% per route and ship and that additional benefits can be gained on the landside due to future digital decision support tools applied for the end-to-end stowage process. In addition, improved cargo unit pick up time estimates can be provided to customers waiting for the cargo to be handled at port, whereby the service improves. 3) In the third case, ‘process optimisation at shipyards’, improved situational awareness and process management, including the use of new technologies, such as 3D and solutions for managing the complex supply chain, have potential for improving the shipyard processes aimed at increased eco-efficiency. For example, in block building phase 3D technology reduces lead-time and potentially saves hundreds of man-hours in rework due to the fact that more efficient processes and proactive actions are enabled.

ECOPRODIGI Project / 2020
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paper

A literature survey on market-based measures for the decarbonization of shipping

Sotiria Lagouvardou*, Harilaos N. Psaraftis, Thalis Zis

This paper aims to conduct an updated literature survey on the Market-Based Measures (MBMs) currently being proposed by various member states and organizations at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) or by the scientific and grey literature as a cost-effective solution to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships. The paper collects, summarizes, and categorizes the different proposals to provide a clear understanding of the existing discussions on the field and also identifies the areas of prior investigation in order to prevent duplication and to avoid the future discussion at the IMO to start from scratch. Relevant European Union (EU) action on MBMs is also described. Furthermore, the study identifies inconsistencies, gaps in research, conflicting studies, or unanswered questions that form challenges for the implementation of any environmental policy at a global level for shipping. Finally, by providing foundational knowledge on the topic of MBMs for shipping and by exploring inadequately investigated areas, the study addresses concrete research questions that can be investigated and resolved by the scientific and shipping community.

Sustainability (Switzerland) / 2020
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Simultaneous energy management and optimal components sizing of a zero-emission ferry boat

Letafat, Armin; Rafiei, Mehdi; Sheikh, Morteza; Afshari-Igder, Mosayeb; Banaei, Mohsen; Boudjadar, Jalil; Khooban, Mohammad Hassan

Due to environmental and economic issues as well as the high performance of marine vessels, efficient energy using has been becoming more demanding. Also, in order to have a zero-emission ship, the utilization of a fuel cell combined with energy storage such as batteries gets more and more attention. In this work, a zero-emission hybrid energy system, including fuel cells, batteries, and cold-ironing, is employed to have an environmentally friendly vessel, and to create condition in which ship operates with high performance, both energy management and components sizing of fuel cells and batteries using real data of ferry boat and intelligent optimization method are done simultaneously. In addition, all constraints related to energy management and component sizing with the topography of the boat and electric power sources are represented and analyzed thoroughly. Ultimately, hourly energy management and component sizing for one specific day are considered in this work, and to optimize this problem, the Improved Sine Cosine Algorithm (ISCA) is utilized. According to obtained results, the proposed energy management and component sizing result in the high-performance ship which could be utilized in the marine industry.

Journal of Energy Storage Volume 28, April 2020, 101215 / 2020
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