Project

The project originates from viewing the Port of Aalborg (PoA) as an infrastructure hub. This perspective is inspired by dialogues with the PoA and existing literature that discusses ports as complex organizations influenced by economic, cultural, political, local community, geographical, administrative, and technological factors.

This view aligns with the aggregated level of the project, where our ambition is to understand what does it mean to be a sustainable infrastructure hub and focus on the PoA not merely as an individual entity but as an ecosystem consisting of multiple internal and external actors and systemic linkages between them. The purpose of the project is to uncover:
- What does being a sustainable infrastructure hub entail, and what are its most relevant sustainability performance assessment indicators?
- How can the PoA, as an infrastructure hub, improve its sustainability performance across the identified sustainability performance indicators?

The logic behind these two questions is predicated on the notion that if green transition performance cannot be measured, it becomes impossible to discuss the strategies and practices that make the complex hub constellation of the PoA greener and more sustainable.

Project Flow
Phase 1 (Q4 2024 - Q1 2025): State of the Art, Literature Insights and their Validation
Terminological and definitional clarity as well as an analytical framework for the key parameters and constructs of the project
Phase 2 (Q2 2025 - Q4 2025): Empirical insights into the PoA and other port infrastructures in Denmark and internationally
Cases of the PoA, as well as other ports' ecosystems, will be developed with the objective to benchmark them against established regulation/guideline systems
Phase 3 (Q1 2026 – Q2 2026): Co-developing recommendations and advice for the PoA based on the best practices distilled from other ports' cases and theoretical lenses.

The main objective of this project is to provide a detailed feasibility study of the economy, maturity and technical challenges in changing diesel gen-sets of the offshore service fleets with a hybrid battery and fuel cell powered units. Currently, these ships are supplied with 2-4 high velocity 4-stroke diesel motors with the size 1-6MW that consume low-sulfur diesel oil. These ships normally sail with 14 day return cycles and therefore they should be equipped with energy stored for at least 14 days.

Automation plays a key role in reducing CO2 emissions in shipping, yet human sensory contributions are often overlooked and understudied. The project studies how human senses and sensor technologies interact in decision-making from an anthropological perspective.

Through five technological projects, SLGreen aims to develop digital tools to reduce fuel consumption in Danish shipping, improve ship performance, optimize hull maintenance, monitor engine condition and implement remote navigation.
The transversal anthropological project, Senses & Sensors, will add an analysis of human competencies and explore dynamics in the execution of the projects.
SLGreen is supported by the Innovation Fund Denmark, the Danish Maritime Foundation and the Lauritzen Foundation.

The shipping industry's plans to replace fossil fuels with green fuels have several well-described climate and environmental benefits, but far less well-studied are the possible environmental risks linked to a large-scale use of green fuels in ships. Sufficient knowledge of the physical and chemical properties, toxicity to the environment, as well as dispersion and degradation dynamics of the green fuels in the environment are therefore fundamental prerequisites for the shipping industry to implement the green transition with minimal risk of simply replacing one problem with another.

In this project, we will carry out the first in-depth mapping and environmental risk assessment of potential derived environmental effects that may arise from both emissions to the atmosphere and discharges to the marine environment from these green marine fuels. The project includes, among other things, a thorough review of the properties of the green fuels in both air and water, experimental studies on the impact on aquatic organisms, natural degradation mechanisms, the spread in both the atmosphere and marine environment during normal operation and in the event of accidents/spills, as well as life cycle assessment (LCA).

The project focuses on supporting the Danish strategy on decarbonization by means of accelerating the implementation and scaling of green Power-to-X (PtX) technologies in Denmark. A pivotal part in such acceleration is to build well- functioning and safe infrastructures of storage, handling, and bunkering in Danish ports, as these play a key part as future green energy hubs. The project apply techno -anthropological theories and methodologies to explore and unpack possible safety concerns and ethical controversies within social acceptance among stakeholders across the PtX value chain in two Danish ports: Rønne and Aarhus. Based on this, the project develops a handbook with guidelines and tools on how to establish social agreements on safety in PtX projects. Thus, the project taps into topics in the themed area of green research and technology development, i.e. developing new energy systems while also understanding societal consequences of these, and drafting tools.
supporting this shift.

Ferries are responsible for 0.8 million tons of greenhouse gas emission annually in Denmark and often sail close to cities where they add to the already critical air pollution levels. This holds especially true for small Danish municipalities, as diesel-driven ferries contribute up to 20 % to their total global warming contribution. Therefore, fully electric powered ferries are taking centre stage in Denmark. However, the current wide use of synthetic refrigerants (and their leaks into the atmosphere) in the maritime sector leads even 100 % electricity-powered ships not to be actually greenhouse gas emission free. In addition, currently the driving range of fully electric powered ferries is penalized due to the lack of an optimized heat pump system layout, suitable battery thermal management strategy and appropriate waste heat recovery approaches.

The objective of the ECO2-ferries project is to develop the first heat pump being completely tailored to 100 % electricity-powered ferries. The use of CO2 as a natural (i.e. future-proof) refrigerant of the heat pump will finally lead 100 % electricity-powered ferries to be actually greenhouse gas emission free ships. In addition, CO2 will allow for a compact heat pump and high safety levels (i.e. non-flammable and non-toxic). High energy performance will be guaranteed by the implementation of (i) an optimized system layout, (ii) a proper battery thermal management approach, (iii) a suitable heat recovery technique as well as (iv) an effective and robust overall control strategy.

The ECO2-ferries project will involve the University of Southern Denmark, Odense Maritime Technology and Marstal Navigationsskole as project partners and Danske Maritime, Danfoss A/S, BCOOL A/S, Danish Technological Institute, Ærø municipality and Ærøfærgerne as project supporters. The project has received funding from Den Danske Maritime Fond.

Industrial PhD Project at DTU together with North Sails on modelling, design and cost optimization of wind propulsion systems for commercial ships.

PhD Project at DTU on monitoring carbon emissions of ships