Energy Transition and Sustainability Performance of Dredging Vessels
Type:
Presented during:
WODCON XXIII - Dredging is changing - The Practice. The Science. The Business.
Authors:
B.T.W. Mestemaker, M.B. Gonçalves Castro
Abstract
" The dredging industry is facing large challenges in the coming years such as upcoming emission regulations and the maritime energy transition. A balance between technical, economic and environmental aspects is required to select the most suitable drive system configuration to make the vessel future proof. The process is complex and unique for each vessel and cannot be simply copied from other vessel types. Early stage design decisions on fuel and drive systems will become more important in the coming years, in order to ensure the viability of vessels during and after the maritime energy transition. For this purpose, the Life Cycle Performance Assessment (LCPA) method was developed for the maritime sector, which only requires a limited amount of information. The LCPA uses the five most important environmental parameters for the maritime sector and one financial parameter to evaluate vessel designs. The well-to-tank aspect of fuel production is very important in determining which design alternative is truly sustainable and this is included in the LCPA. Five vessels designs are evaluated in this paper, all compliant with 0.1% fuel sulphur limit and IMO NOX Tier III. These concepts are a diesel fuelled vessel with a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system (benchmark), a liquefied natural gas fuelled vessel with and without a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system, a methanol fuelled vessel and a hydrogen fuelled vessel with fuel cells. Three different policy scenarios that vary in terms of fuel prices and emission costs are used to assess the five vessel designs. Carbon emission costing is being discussed as a policy tool to accelerate the energy transition. A sensitivity analysis is presented showing which carbon cost levels are required in order to make the cleaner alternatives economically viable."
Keywords: life cycle performance assessment, maritime energy transition, alternative fuels, carbon capture and storage, emission regulations