EU’s Waterborne Technology Platform wants to deploy highly innovative
technologies to bring about significant emission reductions in the waterborne
transport sector. The platform is tapping into the European Commission’s
Innovation Fund to reduce carbon.
The EU Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest programs for the
demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies, financed by revenues
from the auction of emission allowances from the EU’s Emissions Trading System.
Deployment of technologies and concepts facilitating the transition to
zero-emission waterborne transport can be co-financed via the EU Innovation
Fund, too.
This development is highly relevant, since these innovative technologies have
reached a technological maturity, but are often not mature enough from
a financial perspective.
Thereby, the Innovation Fund is key to deploy the technologies resulting
from Research, Development and Innovation, more specifically in the framework
of the Co-Programmed Partnership on Zero-Emission Waterborne Transport
under Horizon Europe. When Research, Development and Innovation efforts are
combined with support for the deployment of innovative technologies, Europe
has a real shot to become a true frontrunner in the transition to zero-emission
waterborne transport.
Waterborne Technology Platform has been set up as an industry-oriented
Technology Platform to establish a continuous dialogue between all waterborne
stakeholders, such as classification societies, shipbuilders, ship-owners, maritime
equipment manufacturers, infrastructure and service providers, universities or
research institutes, and with the EU Institutions, including 19 Member States.
research institutes, and with the EU Institutions, including 19 Member States.
Industry players are “getting greener” by the minute. Finnish marine
engine-maker Wärtsilä wants to be carbon neutral by 2030 – including readiness
for zero carbon fuels by the decade’s end. Granted, the marine sector still
relies on the use of fossil fuels, but Wärtsilä’s current portfolio already enables
its customers to switch to carbon neutral fuels, such as biofuels or synthetic
methane.
As the transition from fossil fuels to carbon neutral (or carbon-free fuels)
will happen gradually, Wärtsilä is looking to enable this transition by providing
technologies that allow its customers to use more sustainable fuels once these
become available.
In October 2021, Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment and Solvang ASA, a Norwegian
shipping company, announced a full-scale pilot retrofit installation of a carbon
capture and storage (CCS) system on one of Solvang’s ethylene carriers,
Clipper Eos.
The agreement reinforces Wärtsilä’s continued research and development
into carbon capture at the point of exhaust to support the shipping industry’s
decarbonisation pathway. To remain in line with the IMO’s decarbonisation
targets, Wärtsilä is initially aiming for a 70% reduction in CO2 emissions at the
point of exhaust with its pilot unit.
Petri Charpentier
