SAFeCRAFT project
Accelerating the adoption of sustainable alternative fuels in waterborne transport
| Business | Period | Project Coordinator | Funding Scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marine | December 2023 - November 2027 | Hydrus Engineering S.A. |
Horizon Europe |
Challenge
Europe’s waterborne transport is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 13% of total EU transport emissions in 2018, when considering ships over 5000 gross tonnage visiting European ports.
In July 2023, the IMO GHG Strategy was revised to include an ambitious goal of achieving net-zero GHG emissions from international shipping by or around 2050. This includes a commitment to increase the use of alternative zero and near-zero GHG fuels by 2030, with checkpoints for 2030 and 2040. These ambitious targets make it crucial to accelerate the transition to sustainable, climate-neutral fuels in the sector.
However, the adoption of sustainable alternative fuels (SAFs) is often challenging due to concerns about safety, global availability, technological maturity, and economic viability. The SAFeCRAFT project aims to address these challenges by developing and demonstrating the safety and viability of SAFs, accelerating their adoption in waterborne transport. The project will showcase four technologies that enable the use of SAFs for different ship types, including oceangoing and short-sea shipping, newbuilding and retrofits. Four common types of vessels in EU ports will be considered for desktop studies, and the SAFs will include liquid or compressed green H2, as well as two green H2 carriers, LOHCs and ammonia. SAFs will also be demonstrated on a bulk carrier. For the demo vessel, H2 will be used as the primary fuel source for a generator set, providing power to a shaft motor (Power-Take-In) in parallel with the main engine, thus covering part of ship’s propulsion needs.
Additionally, the project will help Europe pursue strategic societal objectives:
- reducing the environmental footprint of shipping
- accelerating the transition to sustainable and climate-neutral fuels
- facilitating new highly skilled job opportunities
- fostering economic growth in the EU and the development of new technologies, services, and regulatory standards in the waterborne transport sector.
SAFeCRAFT will provide validated safety risk assessments, risk mitigation measures, and demonstrations to support the development of the relevant safety provisions. This will contribute to the development of new or enhanced regulatory framework in the EU and potentially at the IMO, promoting the development of missing industry standards (such ad ISO) and Class rules addressing SAFs in various operational conditions and cargo handling activities. Additionally, the project will demonstrate the effectiveness of innovative smart digitalization tools, thus facilitating the safe, clean, and efficient use of SAFs on-board.
Approach
RINA will lead the definition of desktop studies and outline the required data. In addition, we will support our partners in defining and developing the innovative technologies, proactively contributing to all stages of design, testing and construction.
We will also ensure compliance of the novel concepts with applicable International / EU regulations, classification Rules and Guidelines, setting-up an Approval Roadmap. We will also contribute to the preliminary risk assessment of the proposed innovative solutions.
Finally, we will support the identification of possible regulatory barriers or gaps, updating existing classification rules or developing new classification rules and/or additional class notations.
Conclusion
The main outcome of SAFeCRAFT is to demonstrate the safety and efficiency of H2 as a marine fuel, identifying the actual performance of H2 (in either liquid or compressed form), NH3 and LOHC as fuel carriers from an environmental and economic standpoint.
This is a pre-requisite to transport H2 in longer voyages, introducing sustainable technologies that have not yet been tested or are only available in smaller sizes. The scalable characteristics of the proposed solutions will allow engineers to speed up design studies on all four fuels / fuel carriers (LH2, CGH2, LOHC and NH3), focusing on their containment, storage and utilization.
The project outcomes will cater to a wide range of vessel types and sizes, facilitating the wide adoption of SAFs in the marine sector. It will also provide a scalable design and risk assessment model for accurate cost estimations and investment planning for ship owners and operators.
Various shipping stakeholders, including regulatory bodies, manufacturers of storage containment systems, shipowners, shipyards, and ship operators, will benefit from project results.
