The mission policy approach to the sustainable blue economy has identified as critical the ability to anticipate the emergence of a wide range of feasible innovations as they enter the transactional environment of organizations in the marine and maritime sector. This article contributes to that growing effort by harnessing the wisdom of the crowd and presents more than 60 crowdsourced, time-specific innovation forecasts expected to impact maritime, shipbuilding, ports, offshore wind, and ocean infrastructure. Data were collected in 2020 by the EU-funded Interreg VB PERISCOPE Project, a North Sea Region initiative to catalyze transregional innovation. The results can be used strategically to develop collaborative, transregional planning and policy for innovation based on data reflecting public expectations for the future. Years from now, this article can also act as a snapshot of public expectations at the onset of the decade.
Melting Arctic sea ice, shore ice, and permafrost are changing costs and benefits to transport routes between Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and more generally, for maritime economic activity in the Arctic. We investigate the potential for development of Arctic ports from a logistics (demand) and an infrastructural (supply) point of view that directly incorporates local concerns. This approach broadens the scope of the discussion from existing analyses that focus primarily on the ways in which global forces, exerted through resource extraction or trans-polar shipping, impact the Arctic.
This study addresses a critical gap in environmental assessments by focusing on petrochemical port operations, an area traditionally overlooked in life cycle assessments (LCAs) of material supply chains. This study investigates various methods of loading for 22 petrochemical products i.e., gas, liquid, container, tanker, and bulk loading; at the biggest petrochemical port in the world situated in the Persian Gulf with a loading capacity of 35 MMt/yr. Twelve scenarios were developed to enhance environmental efficiency based on hotspots defined in LCAs of port loading operations of petrochemicals in their present state. Scenarios 1 through 5 consider electricity savings of 2%–10%, scenarios 6 through 10 consider renewable photovoltaic energy mix of 10%–50%, and scenarios 11 and 12 consider no flaring and rejection of ash waste from ships.
To prioritize these scenarios based on environmental efficiency gains, a comprehensive LCA-GRM hybrid model has been introduced. This integrated model combines life cycle assessment and gray relational modeling, providing a robust framework for evaluating and ranking the scenarios. The Best Worst Method (BWM) is implemented for weighing multiple environmental criteria, contributing to informed decision-making.
The findings underscore the substantial impact of electricity consumption and gas flaring in petrochemical port operations, prompting the identification of the 'no flaring' scenario (S11) as the most preferred option. Implementing this scenario could lead to significant reductions in climate change impacts (22.14%), ozone formation and human health impacts (16.73%), and photochemical oxidant formation (15.98%).
The study's significance lies in emphasizing the environmental implications of port operations and urging policymakers to integrate port impacts into broader supply chain assessments. We advocate for targeted strategies to enhance electricity efficiency and reduce gas flaring in petrochemical ports, aligning with global sustainability goals. The Comprehensive LCA-GRM hybrid approach offers valuable insights for decision-makers involved in the global transportation of goods through ports.
This white paper shows how small and medium sized companies (SME) involved in supply chains affiliated to the maritime industry and port industrial areas are challenged by the diffusion of technologies and managerial principles associated with Industry 4.0 with a special focus on blockchain technology. Blockchain technology creates potential for added value through transparency and auditability of data flows that arise through system decentralization, where intermediary parties such as a central authority will not store data or verify transactions. Instead of conventional workflows, the technology brings new approaches to collaboration by combining multiple parties with equality of data ownership. In doing so, blockchain technology challenges conventional rules of data ownership.
While attention on blockchain technology has been increasing, most blockchain projects are still under development. However, the technology gained ground in areas such as healthcare, governance, and supply chain management. This white paper focuses on the potentials and challenges of blockchain technology in maritime related supply chains.
Based on a discussion of industry preparedness for Industry 4.0, a taxonomy of blockchain adoption is presented. The taxonomy is based on two dimensions including: (1) the digital complexity of internal activities and (2) the degree of value chain integration between actors in the supply chain. The dimensions encompass four archetypes of behavior on blockchain adoption that are applied in the following analysis.
The potential for blockchain technology is increasingly evident in supply chain logistics and manufacturing that is often located in industrial areas such as ports. By studying blockchain potentials in Danish maritime SMEs, the findings reflect the currently limited insight into blockchain technology from the point of view of business actors. As shown in the study of three Danish supply chains, containers, seafood and recirculated plastics, there are low-hanging potentials to be realized through changes to the current technologies and systems in application.
The Ghana National Single Window has become the focus of attention over its potential to move goods swiftly. However, since its inception in 2002, the controversies surrounding the implementation suggest issues beyond trade facilitation. The Information Systems literature primarily ascribes the controversies to resistance to technology. By adopting the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as a learning process for understanding port stakeholders' relations and attitudes, we explore the controversies to determine the meanings port stakeholders attribute to them. We combined SSM with interviews, media content analysis and focus groups made possible by snowballing. The responses were analyzed using rich pictures and validated through a conceptual model. The results reveal a fragmented government where ministries, agencies, and personalities assert power in single window implementation through I.T. vendor contracts. The situation results in a high cost of doing business at the port for shippers due to non-transparent and questionable contracts. The public's attitude towards the controversies reflects fears, hopes and expectations and legitimate concerns about important political and social goals. Using SSMs focus on relations and attitudes, we can document how controversies attributed to new technology is not a question of technology but of perceived political interference.
The European Union (EU) transport policy recognizes the importance of the waterborne transport systems as key elements for sustainable growth in Europe. By 2030, 30% of total road freight over 300 km should shift to rail or waterborne transport, and more than 50% by 2050. Thus far, this ambition has failed but there have been several project initiatives within the EU to address these issues. In one of these projects, we consider a new waterborne transport system for Europe that is green, robust, flexible, more automated and autonomous, and able to connect both rural and urban terminals. The purpose of this paper is to describe work and preliminary results from this project. To that effect, and in order to assess any solutions contemplated, a comprehensive set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has been defined, and three specific use cases within Europe are examined and evaluated according to these KPIs. KPIs represent the criteria under which the set of solutions developed are evaluated, and also compared to non-autonomous solutions. They are grouped under economic, environmental and social KPIs. KPIs have been selected after a consultation process involving project partners and external Advisory Group members. Links to EU transport and other regulatory action are also discussed.
This paper proposes an economic and resilient operation architecture for a coupled hydrogen-electricity energy system operating at port. The architecture is a multi-objective optimization problem, which includes the energy system optimal economy as the goal orientation and the optimal resilience as the goal orientation. The optimal resilience orientation looks for the best resilience performance of the port through reasonable energy management including (1) reducing the amount of electricity purchased by the port power grid from the external power grid (2) improving the energy level of electric energy storage (3) improving the energy level of hydrogen energy storage. Taking the actual coupled hydrogen-electricity energy system of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port as an example, four typical scenarios were selected according to renewable generation and load characteristics, and a comparative analysis was carried out during the oriented operation. The results show that although the resilience orientation increases the operating cost compared with the economic orientation, the four scenarios reduce the load shedding by 44.84%, 30.26%, 48.49% and 34.37% respectively when the external power grid is disconnected. The impact of changes in resilience-oriented weight coefficients and hydrogen price on system resilience performance was investigated to provide more references for decision makers.
The emissions of the maritime sector caused by ship transportation and other fossil fuel sources pose a threat to the environment and human health. It drives an increasing interest in adopting electrification solutions to revolutionize the conventional maritime energy-intensive and highly polluting industry. Accordingly, this thesis is one of the pioneering attempts to implement a seaport microgrid and carbon capture shore power system of cold ironing at a port dedicated to sustainability while remaining competitive.
However, the technological and research gaps of the conventional port scheduling paradigm constitute challenges in a synergy between the two prominent maritime electrification systems of seaport microgrids and cold ironing. The incorporation of cold ironing into seaport operations introduces new challenges to handling workflow and the potential impact of such integration has not yet been quantitatively addressed. Developing strategic management to improve port performance is always an issue for the port operators. This research gap motivated this study to develop an integrated operation and energy management framework by executing forecasting and optimization techniques for coordinating these technologies toward the emission neutrality goal.
This thesis begins with an extensive review of the significant aspects of cold ironing technology and seaport microgrids. A range of factors associated with the varying demand for cold ironing in seaport microgrids, requiring advanced forecasting techniques, are described in Chapter 2. Another challenge is that the integration of cold ironing with limited capacities increases the complexity of the existing seaside operation at port namely the berth allocation problem (BAP) and quay crane allocation problem (QCAP). It prolongs the waiting time for the ships to be served at berth. Thus, a seaside operational optimization model is developed in Chapter 3 to cooperatively schedule BAP, QCAP, and cold ironing assignment problems (CIAP). Chapter 4 integrates bilevel optimization as an energy management system (EMS) framework to coordinate the joint cold ironing with the seaport microgrid concept, providing more flexibility in energy scheduling while remaining cost-effective. Finally, Chapter 5 presents the overall conclusions of the thesis, research contribution, and future recommendations.
Port clusters are expected to play a significant role in the transition towards a circular economy, both at the level of facilitating regional and global transport within circular production chains, as well as hosting circular activities in port areas. There is strong evidence that significant investments in the circular economy (CE) are being made in port areas, albeit without much knowledge on their impacts. To ensure an efficient use of port resources in view of this transition, these impacts should be adequately monitored. Research on circular economy indicators for ports is still in an exploratory stage, characterized by an absence of in-depth research on the development of port-related circular economy indicators. This paper focuses on the development of a comprehensive set of relevant and feasible CE indicators, which aim to support port managing bodies (PMBs) as well as port stakeholders to monitor the CE transition taking place. Through multimethod qualitative research, including content analysis, focus groups, a gap analysis and a qualitative survey, an actionable list of CE 12 indicators for ports was developed. Seven of which are highly feasible and five of which have medium feasibility in terms of stakeholder relevance and ease of implementation. Findings related to (1) the overall limited CE ambition levels of PMBs and (2) the difference in the values of some indicators for different port typologies are also discussed. The value of this study for practitioners lies in providing them with an actionable set of KPIs which can support their efforts and communication related to their CE transition.
Ports are crucial hubs in the functioning of the global economy, and maritime transport is a major emitter of air pollutants. Ports have considerable potential for promoting environmental upgrading in maritime transport and along global value chains more generally, but so far have been only partially successful in doing so. We examine results, limitations and future potential of voluntary initiatives that have been carried out by selected European and North American port authorities, which are considered frontrunners in environmental management. Drawing from the insights of global value chain analysis and organizational theory, we find that low ‘tool implementation complexity’ and high ‘issue visibility’ concerning emissions are key facilitators of environmental upgrading. We suggest that ports can intervene in two main ways to improve the environmental performance of maritime transport beyond their organizational and physical boundaries: by lowering tool implementation complexity through stronger collaboration within global value chains; and by enhancing emission visibility through alliances with cargo-owners and regulators.