Maritime Zero-emission Infrastructure
There is a huge potential for emission cuts in the Norwegian domestic bulk/breakbulk segment, through the use of hydrogen and ammonia fuels.
This demand is well met by announced plans for fuel production, shows the results from the Maritime Zero-emission Infrastructure project. Initial indications show that centralised production may be economically preferable to local production.
The Maritime Zero-emission Infrastructure project set out to determine the propulsion energy needs for Norwegian domestic bulk and breakbulk vessels in the year 2021. The potential use of hydrogen and ammonia as part of a wider infrastructure assessment is also part of the project.
“Only 5 out of 50 harbours benefit from having locally produced hydrogen”
Production volumes exceed the demand
Figure 1: A large portion of the demand is in Western Norway.
The domestic bulk and breakbulk vessels studied collectively had propulsion energy needs of around 100 GWh. The vessels (of relatively low size) performed on average a trip every 2 to 3 days of around 500 km and operated near the coast at low speeds with multiple (dispersed) bunkering opportunities.
Since the vessels do not operate regular routes, a low repeatability on harbour visits was observed. Initial analysis indicates that movement patterns of the vessel majority (35 out of 56) may for the most part be satisfied by the use of compressed H2, with the remainder satisfied by ammonia.
Further results show that, with the announced plans for production facilities supported by ENOVA, the production volumes of these fuels substantially exceeds the potential demand from the domestic bulk segment. In terms of spatial distribution, a large portion of the demand is allocated along Western Norway (Figure 1). A comparison of the energy demand for each of the harbours show large differences both in fuel selection and the magnitude of demand (Figure 2 below). We do, however, see that most harbours have one dominating fuel demand, either compressed H2 or ammonia. Since these vessels do not operate on regular routes, no regular (continuous) fuel demand profile exists at the harbours, which can present a challenge.
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Firgure 2: Energy demand for each of the harbours show large differences both in fuel type and demand.
Central production of hydrogen is preferred
Results show that central production with distribution of compressed H2 is a preferable option compared to local production for most harbours. In total, analysis indicates that only 5 out of 50 harbours benefit from having locally produced hydrogen. For the distribution of ammonia, sea transport is preferred over road transport for all connections. Nevertheless, road transport is at maximum only 12% more expensive than sea transport, and on an average level only 5% more expensive. On the other hand, there are a lot of uncertainties related to the costs, so a 5% difference can quickly turn around with changes in prices in different parts of the value chain.
Background to the results
Maritime Zero-emission Infrastructure was funded by MoZEES as a pre-project and builds upon work carried out in the HyInfra-project. The project partners were Ocean Hyway Cluster (OHC – project lead), The Institute of Transport Economics (TØI), Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), and The Norwegian Coastal Administration (NCA).
The first step in Maritime Zero-emission Infrastructure was to define the vessels to include in the analysis. To do this, the NCA flagged domestic (non-international) Norwegian bulk and break-bulk vessels in operation on the Norwegian coast, which were subsequently streamlined further to find those that had associated Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. AIS data for these (56) vessels, along with vessel information (e.g., main engine power) were then delivered to TØI.
Figure 3: Method summary.
Using the AIS and vessel data, TØI applied their energy and emissions model AISEEM to map out the movements of these vessels, from which the top fifty most visited harbours for the ‘fleet’ were selected as potential refuelling infrastructure locations to consider in the analysis. The AISEEM model was thereafter used to estimate propulsion energy needs for these vessels.
Figure 4: Harbour to harbour trips
The ships were then split according to the likelihood of being replaced with either hydrogen or ammonia candidates, assuming limitation in sailing distances for the fuels. This was based on indications from two shipbuilders in the project group, who suggest that compressed H2 may be suitable for use in these vessels for trips up to 500-1000 km in length. Energy demands were then allocated to the preselected harbours on a trip basis. In combination, this gave energy demand profiles of hydrogen and ammonia needs at these harbours on a daily resolution. The overall approach is shown in Figure 3, and the example harbour to harbour trips in Figure 4.
Based on this, IFE performed an initial infrastructure assessment addressing distances from harbours to planned production facilities. The results were used to give suggestions on how demand for compressed hydrogen and ammonia can be satisfied in an efficient manner, considering the cost of the different supply chain steps.
Opens several research questions
This study opens several research questions on how to solve the Norwegian maritime sector’s challenge to reach emission reduction targets, both from a logistics point of view as well as from an infrastructure needs perspective. Addressing the entire maritime freight transport segment, as well as the bulk segment specifically, is needed through research at several parts of the value chain. This should involve more detailed analysis, as well as work to put results in the context of other segments since zero-emission production will cover purposes other than for the maritime sector. Already it is apparent that costs are critical, in addition to adapting for production and demand balance.
Contact us for participation in a follow-up project!
We are planning for a full project addressing several of these challenges and the research council has calls open with deadline 9 February 2023. Challenges are best addressed in collaboration, and we ask partners to contact us for further discussion of their interests and needs, and for participation in the project.
Kristina Skogen
Project Engineer
+47 948 47 736
kristina(a)hubforocean.no