The Digital Twin for Green Shipping

The main objective of Green Marine is to significantly accelerate climate neutrality of water borne transport through retrofitting existing fleets with cost and emission control solutions. To support decision makers retrofitting protocols and a software tool catalogue that gathers knowledge will be developed and validated. We will demonstrate these tools and the innovative solutions aimed at carbon capture mineralisation, which also aids in deacidifying our seas; energy savings for HVAC systems through air-reuse; carbon and water capture with membranes, and the use of excess engine heat to produce a syngas to save on fuel consumption.

Digitalization of the Transport sector has been a continual focus of the European Commission and is seen as a primary enabler of smart solutions for sustainable transport that can deliver economic and societal benefits.

Digital Twins are realistic digital representations of physical artefacts, enabling improved insights for enhanced decision making, particularly in complex systems where DTs are employed for predicting outcomes and assessing “what-if” scenarios.  This leads to real-time optimization of processes and operations and, ultimately, to unlocking value which is otherwise difficult to grasp through conventional means.

The project will enable stakeholders in shipping to actively embrace the full spectrum of Digital Twins innovations to support smart green shipping in both the upgrade of existing ships, as well as the building of new vessels.

The DT4GS’s strategic sector main impact objectives are to:

1. Support shipping companies in achieving up to 20% reduction in CO2e with a 2026 horizon, by developing and deploying real-time configurable DTs for ship and fleet operational performance optimisation in 4 Living Labs (LLs) involving shipping companies, with different types of ships, and establishing fully validated industry services for Green Shipping Operational Optimisation DTs expected to be adopted by more than 1000 ships by 2030.

2. Establish a comprehensive zero-emission shipping methodology and support Virtual Testbed and Decision Support Systems that address new buildings, retrofits and the shipping-port interface.

More information about the project can be found at the project website.