Ship design company OSK ShipTech has joined with several partner companies and organisations in an Energy Cluster Denmark project which compares the total CO2 emissions of shipbuilding in order to see if retrofitting existing vessels can be more beneficial than building low-emission ships from scratch.
OSK Ship Tech CCO Anders Ørgård said: “We have to shift the lens from focusing only on the operational CO2 emissions of a newbuilding to also focus on and include the emissions related to building the ship in the first place. Of course you can reduce the operational emissions from ferries by building a new ferry with greener propulsion types. Only problem is, we’re just solving half the challenge.”
According to Ørgård. 30% of the CO2 emissions of a ship during its entire lifetime derive from the mere building of the ship.
“We have to look at the ship’s total CO2 impact – building and operation included. We are convinced that there is a huge CO2-saving potential in focusing more on retrofits than on newbuilds,” said Ørgård.
OSK-ShipTech is participating in Energy Cluster Denmark’s innovation project alongside Læsø Kommune, Emenergi, Advent Technologie, Nordhavn Power Solutions, Hydrogen Valley, DB and AAU Energy. The project will look specifically at a conversion of an existing domestic ferry Margrete Læsø from diesel to methanol in its bid to become CO2-neutral and particle-free. The objective is to show whether this is practically feasible in relation to the vessel’s operational profile. If proven feasible, 53 domestic routes in Denmark alone could benefit from the project, says OSK.
The scope of the project is to examine installation demands of the new technology related to bunkering, handling, and safety aspect of methanol on passenger ferries, to be ready for implementation within five years.
