Decarbonisation Technology - November 2023 Issue

About CHEK project

introduction of these engines is scheduled for 2026. For ammonia, the market introduction is planned for this year, with first deliveries (to the marine market) next year, while our first methanol engines have already been released and delivered. Which fuels will be available to the shipping industry where and at what cost remains shrouded in uncertainty, so our focus at Wärtsilä is on providing fuel flexibility to shipowners. This allows them to not only safeguard themselves against ending up with stranded assets but also to use the fuel that best fits their circumstances at the time to maintain profitability. Taking a step back from shipping and looking at the global energy transition in a more holistic way, scarce resources, such as biomass and RFNBOs, should be used where they have the biggest impact and where there is no viable path towards direct electrification. At this point, another major transport modality comes into play: aviation. With both using about 300 million tonnes of fossil fuel per year, shipping and aviation have a lot of similarities. Both need to be as safe as possible, and both will still rely on fuels to meet the bulk of their energy needs, primarily because liquid (or liquified) fuels provide superior energy densities. That means both air and sea transport need to have sufficient access to large volumes of renewable fuels at a reasonable cost. What that cost is, the market will decide, of course. The CHEK (deCarbonising sHipping by Enabling Key technology symbiosis on real vessel concept designs) project proposes to reach zero emission shipping by disrupting the way ships are designed and operated today. The project is developing and will demonstrate two bespoke vessel designs – a wind energy-optimised bulk carrier and a hydrogen-powered cruise ship – equipped with an interdisciplinary combination of innovative technologies working in symbiosis to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 99%, achieve at least 50% energy savings, and reduce black carbon emissions by more than 95%.

However, intense collaboration between shipping, aviation, and the fuel supply industry is needed to arrive at an optimum cost solution for both. Jointly, our focus should be on providing the best solutions from a systemic point of view – a view, for instance, that takes into account the fuel flexibility advantage that shipping has over aviation. Not only will shipping have many different fuels that can be used, but the composition of these fuels can also (as evidenced by shipping’s long experience of operating on residual fuels) be more variable versus shipping. So let us leverage that as an industry together as we move towards decarbonised air and sea transport. between the novel technologies proposed and taking into consideration the vessels’ real operational profiles rather than just sea-trial performance. The FPV Platform also serves as a basis for replicating the CHEK approach towards other vessel types, such as tankers, container ships, general cargo ships, and ferries. These jointly cover more than 93% of the global shipping tonnage and are responsible for 85% of global GHG emissions from shipping. Rather than ‘stacking’ novel technologies onto existing vessel designs, the consortium is developing a unique Furure-Proof Vessel (FPV) Design Platform to ensure maximised symbiosis

Acknowledgement of external funding This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 857840

(SeaTech) and 955286 (CHEK). The content of this report reflects only the authors’ view, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

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Sebastiaan Bleuanus sebastiaan.bleuanus@wartsila.com