Projects

SAFe climAte Resilient Infrastructure (SAFARI) is a new EU’s Horizon Europe funded project Agreement number 101147432, in which University of Strathclyde is participating, will develop new approaches to enhancing the resilience of ports and infrastructure against extreme weather events. The project aims to deploy new measures in different maritime and inland infrastructures of port partners, from North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, that can minimize the impacts of the disturbances issued from the extreme weather events. The main scope of this project is to:

• Maintain port operations: Ensure that port operations continue at 80% capacity during disruption periods.

• Optimise transport assets: Efficiently allocate multi-modal transport assets to achieve a 20% modal cargo shift, reducing environmental impact and minimizing downtime.

• Enhance infrastructure resilience: Develop measures to strengthen existing port infrastructure against extreme weather events.

• Ensure safety: Safeguard personnel, vessels, and biodiversity during extreme weather events.

• Develop governance models: Create guidelines and governance models to address climate risks and hazards for port infrastructure.

The project will see an offshore vessel, Viking Energy, which is owned and operated by Eidesvik and on contract to energy major Equinor, have a large 2MW ammonia fuel cell retrofitted, allowing it to sail solely on the clean fuel for up to 3,000 hours annually. The ammonia used in the energy system will be produced by electrolysis. Ammonia is an abundant energy source and can easily be made from renewable resources making it one of the fuels that will likely meet part of shipping’s future energy demand. The goal of the project is also to ensure that a large fuel cell can deliver total electric power to shipboard systems safely and effectively. A significant part of the project will be the scale-up of a 100-kilowatt fuel cell to 2 megawatts.  The ammonia fuel cell system will be installed in Viking Energy and this is the first time an ammonia-powered fuel cell will be installed on a vessel.  Another part of the ShipFC project will perform studies on three other vessel types, namely offshore construction vessels and two cargo vessel types, to illustrate the ability to transfer this technology to other segments of the shipping industry.

The ambition for transition to a Net-Zero economy creates unique challenges and opportunities that vary across the UK. The Shetland Islands, with their unique maritime eco-system, face implications and requirements for significant investments required to reach Net-Zero status. These demand careful planning and prioritisation of the stages for the Net-Zero transition. Financial, environmental, technical and human resources should be considered to create optimal, feasible, sustainable plans in the framework of circular economy.     

NEPTUNE aims to facilitate this process by proving the feasibility of developing a desk-based Decision Modelling and Support System (DEMOSS) digital tool to help analyse, scope and develop plans for supporting the maritime eco-system’s transition to zero emission. This will be based on a toolkit focusing on the reducing the cost of planning and implementation of zero-carbon energy systems for the islands’ maritime and land-based assets. The pilot case will be based on the Shetland Islands but the tool could be used as an exemplar for other islands or ports and possibly scaled up to national level 

This will facilitate the transformation of Shetland’s current dependency on fossil fuels to affordable, renewable energy for both associated marine assets and onshore facilities, communities and industries. It will pave the way for and help to de-risk creating a green hydrogen export business at industrial scale on Shetland by harnessing offshore wind power and creating new jobs (Project ORION*). 

*The Orion Project, initiated in April 2020, is a partnership between Shetland Islands Council, OGTC, Strathclyde University, and HIE that aims to transition Shetland away from its fossil fuel dependence at a local and industrial scale. The three key scopes of the project are the production, use, and export of hydrogen fuel and its derivatives, electrification and repurposing of onshore and offshore assets including oil and gas facilities, and industrial transformation centred around the Sullom Voe oil and gas region to service the future hydrogen, tidal, and offshore wind sectors. The project aims to connect developments ranging from the 457 MW wind farm that will be operational in 2024 to multiple future gigawatt projects in offshore regions. 

SafePASS will radically redefine the evacuation processes, evacuation systems/equipment and international regulations for passenger ships in all environments, hazards and weather conditions, independently of the demographic factor, by developing an integrated system that will collectively monitor, process and inform during emergencies both crew and passengers of the optimal evacuation routes, coupled with advanced, intuitive and easy to use LSA, resulting to a significant reduction of the total time required for ship evacuation and increased safety. SafePASS is an integrated solution that provides passengers tailored evacuation assistance, assists the crew by enhancing their situational awareness and ability to handle de-skilled equipment, while incorporating fail-safe processes for the evacuation procedure. SafePASS prototypes will be validated in real environment, on a cruise ship and in LSA manufacturers testbeds and towing tanks. The consortium, consisting of 15 partners, amongst which academic institutions, classification societies, innovative SMEs, shipyard, LSA manufacturers and a cruise operator, safeguards both the high impact and implementation of the project results, through the preparation of a set of recommendations for IMO submission.