Maritime transport is today responsible for about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According a study from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), shipping emissions could increase between 50% and 250% by 2050, under a business-as-usual scenario. Over half of the ships existing today, will continue to operate beyond 2030, producing considerable pollution, with their increasingly obsolete engines. At the same time, many global cargo operators are now looking for future-proof decarbonisation solutions.
The CLEANERSHIP project by German firm Fuelsave GmbH therefore comes just at the right time. The EU-funded CLEANERSHIP aims to commercialise a breakthrough injection solution (also known as “FS MARINE+ 2SR”) to improve engine efficiency. The innovative technology can be retrofitted to existing ship engines and significantly reduce fuel consumption and lower emissions.
While the underlying technology has already been proven for smaller four-stroke ship engines, from lorry engines through to large vessels, the significant technological jump was to apply the retrofit to the much larger two-stroke engines, the engines of choice for cargo ships and the biggest ocean polluters.
The economic and environmental benefits were demonstrated in a 30-months proof-of-concept trial on board of one of Europe’s largest heavy-lift crane vessels.
The field and laboratory tests have proven that the retrofit significantly reduced fuel consumption and saved 10% of the overall fuel costs, to lower the operation expenses and increase profitability; the smoother running of the engine reduces considerably its wear & tear, and as a consequence, the maintenance and repair costs.
“What we do is very unique and very challenging,” underlines Jan Brugger (COO and General Manager of Fuelsave GmbH, “By making sustainability pay off for our customers, we can really create a win-win-win situation for virtually everybody - our customers, the global environment and our company”.
The technology significantly reduces emissions of greenhouse gases from vessels. This includes reduction by 10-15% of CO2, but by influencing the combustion temperature and facilitating a cleaner & leaner combustion at various load levels – also Nitrous Oxide (by 30-70%) and Black Carbon. FS MARINE+ 2SR can also help to reduce the methane slip from Liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels, the biggest issue in establishing LNG as cleaner transition fuel in shipping.
The results obtained by CLEANERSHIP are very much in line with the International Maritime Organisation’s strategy to reduce total annual GHG emissions from shipping by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008 levels, and underpin the EU Emission Trading Scheme part of the Green Deal, which will soon include shipping.
The financial support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) is in line with the EU’s objectives to provide its citizens with better air quality and mitigate climate change.
Co-funded by the European Union
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