Overview

FLEETfor55 is an ambitious 42-month project funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe Programme (Horizon Innovation Action call HORIZON-CL5-2024-D5-01-12).  The project focuses on maritime transport applications, aiming at becoming a lighthouse project in the forefront of retrofit and new vessel designs for short sea, inland waterway, and high seas vessels. FLEETfor55 aims to ensure optimum assessment, integration, and exploitation of emissions reduction and efficiency improvement technologies, collectively referred to as Energy Efficiency Technologies (EETs) and their combinations, applicable in business cases that consider specific technical, operational, and commercial characteristics of each type of vessel, while being applicable at an EU level by 2030.

The Consortium

The well-balanced and complementary consortium consists of 22 partners from 9 different countries, including 3 major IACS classification societies (ABS, RINA, DNV), 4 technical universities (NTUA, UoS, UPATRAS, NTNU), 3 research institutes (DST, CERTH, CETENA), 9 industry partners (HYD, WML, AES, EPS, FCSI, , SFAST, CSM, SEK, STEALTH), 1 dissemination organization (MGLCRL), 1 port (FV) and 1 shipyard (FREIRE). All partners bring their experience in the fields of shipping, naval architecture and marine engineering, marine systems performance, safety and risk assessment, marine classification, fleet operation, digitalization and decision-making methods.

Scope

FLEETfor55 aspires to be specifically a lighthouse project in the forefront of retrofit and new designs for short sea, inland waterway, and high seas vessels. It ensures optimum assessment, integration, and exploitation of EETs and their combinations applicable in business cases. Each partner covers specific parts of the scope.

• Energy system modelling and fast stimulation assessment (FASTSIM) demonstrate the expected energy efficiency gains and life cycle emission reductions achieved by the resulting designs within their operating reference cases.
• A minimum of three vessel concept designs and use cases are expected to be developed including the following vessel types: short sea, inland waterway, and high seas.
• Development of open-source tools and digital platform, which can be used to assess the operational Carbon intensity of vessel designs and operations.
• Development of decision-support or automation systems to facilitate the most effective implementation of operational energy efficiency improvements.
• Plans for exploitation and dissemination of results should include a strong business case and sound exploitation strategy.

Aim and Objectives

Aim

The overall goal of FLEETfor55 is to enhance the sustainability and efficiency of maritime operations, in alignment with the European Union's "Fit for 55" initiative and Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV), and the IMO’s Carbon Intensity Indicator and Data Collections System (CII/DCS). Specifically, by using a “design for operation” approach for retrofitting existing vessels and designing new ones with EETs, the project aims at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from and increasing energy efficiency of short-sea, inland-waterway, and high-seas vessels. Through the assessment and decision-making processes integrated into the developed tools, FLEETfor55 seeks to benchmark ship designs against current and future sustainability standards, fostering innovation and compliance with stringent environmental regulations. Moreover, FLEETfor55 will develop robust business models, establish an extended network of EET providers, and foster collaboration through a Technology Innovation Network (TIN) and workshops to achieve wider adoption of EETs by 2030.

Objectives

• Design six retrofit Use Cases (UCs) and four new vessel designs UCs with a “design-for-operation” approach.
• Create a holistic roadmap towards optimised and efficient utilisation of EETs’ onboard different vessel types, aiming at meeting the “Fit for 55” goals of 2030.
• Develop a decision support system (DSS) with a design assessment tool for fast assessment and benchmarking through a digital platform.
• Demonstrate accelerated conversion of inland and maritime vessels towards better energy efficiency and reduced emissions.
• Business cases, international collaboration and synergies.
• Assess designs addressing EU ‘Fit for 55’ legislative package and IMO GHG (CII, EEXI, EEDI) targets.
• Establish the Technologies Innovation Network (TIN) to match various use cases to end users.

Approach/Methodology

FLEETfor55 will showcase the entire A-Z approach required for the acceleration of EETs to the maritime sector, in 9 steps, starting from the identification and analysis of the EETs, the analysis of various vessel types, new vessel designs and retrofits, and the benchmarking and fast assessment of their combination in a form of a use case, as well as the development of design and safety guidelines and best practices. This will increase confidence in the use of EETs from end users promoting their uptake. The participation of ship owners, ports and shipyards enriches the consortium, to achieve business objectives and technology acceleration.

• Step 1: Analysis of the legislation framework, development of emissions reduction KPIs and definition of FLEETfor55 targets.
• Step 2: Identification of EETs towards achievement of FLEETfor55 targets for different use cases.
• Step 3: Development and establishment of an extended EETs providers external board – technologies innovation network.
• Step 4: EETs systems analysis and comparison for different ship types and sizes.
• Step 5: Feasibility studies, concept, and basic engineering design of various vessel types.
• Step 6: Development of an open-source design & operations assessment tool.
• Step 7: Development of decision-support systems for effective implementation of EETs.
• Step 8: Operational, risk, and safety assessment.
• Step 9: Techno-commercial evaluation of the proposed solutions, sustainability, and business models.

FLEETfor55 Outcomes and Impacts

The FLEETfor55 project, through its innovative approach and objectives, is poised to make a substantial scientific, economic, technological, and societal impact on the maritime industry. By quantifying the efficacy of various emissions reduction and energy improvement technologies inefficiency strategies under real-world conditions, FLEETfor55 will advance the scientific understanding of sustainable maritime practices for short sea, inland waterway and high seas vessels. Beyond the immediate scientific impact, FLEETfor55 enriches scientific knowledge in general by developing new open-source methodologies that assess the environmental impact of vessels during their life cycle. The innovative tools developed by FLEETfor55 also equip stakeholders with all the necessary resources to decide on the most effective use cases that fits their needs. From an economic perspective, strong business cases that emerge from the project aim to combine profitability with environmental compliance. The innovative tools developed by FLEETfor55 equip stakeholders with all the necessary resources to decide on the most effective use cases, depending on their needs. Both advancements can facilitate growth of sustainable shipping practices, establishing Europe as a leader in maritime transport.

FLEETfor55’s TIN facilitates direct engagement with stakeholders such as technology developers, owners, regulatory bodies, and academic institutions, fostering a culture of innovation and sustainability and achieving important societal impact within the maritime community. TIN can also engage a broader public audience, thus promoting awareness of the importance of energy efficiency in shipping. By addressing scientific, economic, technological, and societal challenges, the FLEETfor55 project not only contributes to the EU’s "Fit for 55" and IMO GHG targets today, but also sets a precedent for holistic and sustainable progress in the future.

Academics Involved

Prof Peilin Zhou (peilin.zhou@strath.ac.uk)

Dr Byongug Jeong (byongug.jeong@strath.ac.uk)

Dr Haibin Wang (haibin.wang@strath.ac.uk)