The management of produced water (PW) discharges from offshore oil and gas installations in the North Atlantic is under the auspices of OSPAR (Oslo/Paris convention for Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic). In 2010, OSPAR introduced the Risk Based Approach (RBA) for PW management. The RBA includes a hazard assessment estimating PW ecotoxicity using two approaches: Whole Effluent Testing (WET) and Substance Based (SB). Set against the framework of the WET and SB approach, this study conducted a literature review on the magnitude and cause of PW ecotoxicity, respectively, and on the challenges of estimating these. A large variability in the reported magnitude of PW WET was found, with (E/L)C50-values ranging from 100% and a median of 11% (n=301). Metals, hydrocarbons, and production chemicals were identified as causing ecotoxicity across literature. However, this review reveals how knowledge gaps on PW composition and high sample- and species-dependency of PW ecotoxicity makes clear identification and generalization difficult. It also highlights how limitations regarding availability and reliability of ecotoxicity data result in large uncertainties in the subsequent risk estimates, which is not adequately reflected in the RBA output (e.g. environmental impact factors). Thus, it is recommended to increase the focus on improving ecotoxicity data quality before further use in the RBA, and that WET should play a more pronounced role in the testing strategy. To increase the reliability of the SB approach, more attention should be given to the actual composition of PW. Bioassay-directed chemical analysis, combining outcomes of WET and SB in toxicity identification evaluations, may hold the key to identifying drivers of ecotoxicity in PW. Finally, an uncertainty appraisal must be an integrated part of all reporting of risk estimates in the RBA, to avoid mitigation actions based on uncertainties rather than reliable ecotoxicity estimations.
Background
The aim of the study was to examine occupational accidents reported from non-passenger merchant ships registered in the Danish International Ship Register in 2010-2012, with a focus on analysing nationality differences in the risk of getting injured in an accident.
Methods
Data about notified occupational accidents were collected from notifications sent to the Danish Maritime Authority and from records of contact with Danish Radio Medical. Events were matched by personal identification and accident data to create a unified database. Stratified cumulative time spent on board by seafarers was used to calculate accident rates. Incidence rates of different nationalities were compared by Poisson regression.
Results
Western European seafarers had an overall accident rate of 17.5 per 100000 person-days, which proved to be significantly higher than that of Eastern European, South East Asian and Indian seaman (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.53, 0.51 and 0.74, respectively), although differences decreased over the investigated period. Smaller but in most cases still significant discrepancies were observed for serious injuries. The back injury rate of Western European employees was found especially high, while eye injuries seem to be more frequent among South East Asian workers.
Conclusions
The study identified substantial differences between nationalities in the rate of various accidents reported from merchant ships sailing under the Danish flag. The differences may be attributed to various factors such as safety behaviour. Investigation of special injury types and characterisation of effective elements of safety culture can contribute to the improvement of workplace safety in the maritime sector
This paper explores the ways in which maritime labor, maritime risk, and seafarers’ survival are embedded in the financial logics and practices of the global shipping industry. By employing the notion of “existential arbitrage,” the ethnography moves through the pursuit of global profit to the value of labor as a commodity, human and financial risk, and ultimately the value of human lives, all of which are arbitraged. Arbitrage is a profit strategy that is based on a belief in the equalizing power of the market yet is predicated on and creates difference among commodities in order to create opportunities to generate profit. Existential arbitrage brings anthropological studies of security and conflict and trade and finance together. By taking the interdependence of these subfields seriously and showing how the relationship between them manifests itself in practice, the notion of existential arbitrage uncovers a brutal financial trading strategy that requires and forces the oscillation between notions of valuable life and the valuation of labor commodities in a competitive global market.
The shipping industry's greenhouse gas emission reduction has received significant focus over the past years. One of the research areas is that of stowage planning for RORO vessels. Efficient stowage plans are necessary to reduce the turnaround time for vessels in a port. Reducing turnaround time results in prolonged sailing time, allowing vessels to reduce fuel consumption through slow steaming. When RORO vessels have calls at several ports, they handle cargo as an approximate FILO queue. Therefore, cargo can potentially become blocked when stowing cargo for later ports, behind cargo with an earlier discharge port. Planning the cargo assignment onboard the vessels also requires considering the arrival time of cargo at the port. Recent research assumes that all freight is available for stowage when the RORO vessels arrive at the port. However, this is not always the case. The unique elements of scheduling and generation of loading/discharge paths are therefore of academic interest. We propose a novel mathematical model with a weighted objective function that minimizes the relationship between the fuel consumption cost and the revenue gained from shipping cargo. The model schedules the cargo loading sequence to reduce time spent handling and re-handling cargo at each port. The problem is studied for a single deck layout for a vessel calling multiple ports. Results of the mathematical model and accompanying metaheuristic will be presented.
Massive investments in offshore wind power generate significant challenges on how this electricity will be integrated into the incumbent energy systems. In this context, green hydrogen produced by offshore wind emerges as a promising solution to remove barriers towards a carbon-free economy in Europe and beyond. Motivated by the recent developments in Denmark with the decision to construct the world's first artificial Offshore Energy Hub, this paper investigates how the lowest cost for green hydrogen can be achieved. A model proposing an integrated design of the hydrogen and offshore electric power infrastructure, determining the levelised costs of both hydrogen and electricity, is proposed. The economic feasibility of hydrogen production from Offshore Wind Power Hubs is evaluated considering the combination of different electrolyser placements, technologies and modes of operations. The results show that costs down to 2.4 EUR per kg can be achieved for green hydrogen production offshore, competitive with the hydrogen costs currently produced by natural gas. Moreover, a reduction of up to 13 pct. of the cost of wind electricity is registered when an electrolyser is installed offshore shaving the peak loads.
Led by the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the EU, the shipping industry struggles to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to align with the Paris Agreement. Clean Cargo, the leading voluntary buyer–supplier forum for sustainability in the cargo shipping industry, developed some years ago a methodology to calculate and report the GHG emissions from containerships. The recently introduced carbon emission requirements by the IMO and EU have reinforced the members’ interest in a new Clean Cargo reporting mechanism that enables a more effective and efficient monitoring of the decarbonization progress. A better understanding of the user needs accompanied by due consideration to the regulatory environment and the technological advances are key to build this new framework. This paper builds on the case of the Clean Cargo initiative to (1) identify the stakeholders’ expectations and motivations for voluntary disclosure of environmental information, and (2) discuss the governance challenges of voluntary initiatives. A questionnaire was designed and deployed to investigate the current uses of Clean Cargo data and the information sharing among different stakeholders. Voluntary schemes can speed up the decarbonization process by proposing standards accepted by all actors of the global value chain. Clean Cargo members envision reporting on absolute GHG emissions per shipment as the way forward.
The maritime sector contributes significantly to climate change, given thenumber of global emissions that this represents. Emissions inventorying isone of the measurement system approaches considered in terminals to mitigate harmful emissions. The concept of sustainability has gained attentionwhere economic, social, and environmental dimensions need to be balanced.Assessing all three sustainability dimensions is important. Both the environment and the society, e.g., human health and safety, are impacted by terminal operations. Reducing their negative impact can compromise the economicgrowth of the terminal. This is challenging the maritime sector, and althoughsome authors define methods to evaluate sustainability in terminals, nostandard guideline is available in the literature. The lack of a common reference guideline makes comparison of sustainability actions in terminals difficult.This paper presents a sustainability assessment framework based on theanalysis of the state of the art in literature contributing to sustainable development of terminals and supporting decision-makers.
Taking concrete steps towards a carbon-free society, the Danish Parliament has recently approved the establishment of the world's first two offshore energy hubs on Bornholm and on an artificial island in the North Sea. Being the two first-of-their-kind projects, several aspects related to the inclusion of these “energy islands” in the current market setup are still under discussion. To this end, this paper presents a first large-scale impact analysis of offshore hubs on the whole European power system and electricity market. Our study shows that energy hubs in the North Sea contribute to increase social welfare in Europe. However, when considering the impact on each country, benefits are not shared equally. To help the development of such projects, we focus on the identification of the challenges arising from the hubs. From a market perspective, we show how exporting countries are affected by the lower electricity prices and we point at heterogeneous consequences induced by new transmission capacity installed in the North Sea. From a system point of view, we show how the large amount of wind energy stresses conventional generators, which are required to become more flexible, and national grids, which cannot always accommodate large imports from the hubs.
Acknowledgments: I thank Amanda Bille, Anna Land, Attila Marton, Britta Gammelgaard, Carl Marcus Wallenburg, Christian Durach, Christian Hendriksen, Christian Huber, Dane Pflueger, Elise Berlinski, Florian Kock, Frank Fürstenberg, Helen Peck, Ida Schrøder, Ingo Zettler, Jan Mouritsen, Jane Lister, Jennifer Rogan, Johan Lundin, Kamilla Barat, Lisa Paulsen, Lorraine van Halewijn, Marin Jovanovic, Michael Herburger, Paola Trevisan, Philip Beske-Janssen, Regina Brogna, Stefano Ponte, and Thomas Johnsen for their helpful suggestions and comments. I also thank Journal of Supply Chain Management’s editorial team, especially Mark Pagell and the anonymous associate editor, for their exceptionally constructive and thoughtful guidance. In particular, I thank Günther Metzger and Jean François Bianco, who have been very inspirational throughout my thought process. This research resulted from a collaboration between Copenhagen Business School and Nordakademie.
Supply chain researchers are confronted with a dizzying array of research questions, many of which are not mutually independent. This research was motivated by the need to map the landscape of research themes, identify potential overlapping areas and interactions, and provide guidelines on areas of focus for researchers to pursue. We conducted a three-phase research study, beginning with an open-ended collection of opinions on research themes collected from 102 supply chain management (SCM) researchers, followed by an evaluation of a consolidated list of themes by 141 SCM researchers. These results were then reviewed by 10 SCM scholars. Potential interactions and areas of overlap were identified, classified, and integrated into a compelling set of ideas for future research in the field of SCM. We believe these ideas provide a forward-looking view on those themes that will become important, as well as those that researchers believe should be focused on. While areas of research deemed to become most important include big data and analytics, the most under-researched areas include efforts that target the “people dimension” of SCM, ethical issues and internal integration. The themes are discussed in the context of current developments that the authors believe will provide a valuable foundation for future research.