A new project aims to find ways of making vessels even more energy-efficient than today. Finnish Wärtsilä coordinates the three-year-long project Seatech, which has a total of six partners.
The consortium aims to develop two symbiotic ship engines and solutions for the future, which combined can achieve a 30-percent fuel reduction, inform the partners in a press release. The project also aims to eliminate all emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxides, while CO2 emissions will be reduced by 46 percent.
A sustainable environment and not least efficiency are determinant for the future of shipping, says Jonas Åkerman, director of Research and Technology Development at Wärtsilä, in the press release.
“(…) we intend to play an important role in facilitating a cleaner and more profitable future for the marine sector,” says Åkerman about the project.
200,000 passenger cars
The ultimate goal of the project is to scale the different solutions and apply them in operational environments. As a start, the project aims for the short-sea vessel market, in which the solutions are expected to be rolled out in both the European and Asian markets from 2025. The market for larger vessels will follow later.
“Assuming just 10 percent of European short-seas vessels were to be retrofitted with SeaTech, 32.5 million tons of CO2 would be eliminated annually, the equivalent of emissions from 200,000 passenger cars. Related benefits would be notable savings in health care costs, and the indirect creation of jobs in the shipbuilding industry,” write the parties.
In addition to Wärtsilä, participants include Huygens Engineers BV, Liewenthal Electronics, Utkilen AS, National Technical University of Athens, UiT The Arctic University in Norway and UK University of Southampton.
The project is funded by the EU and runs until 2023.
English Edit: Ida Jacobsen
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