Wasaline and Uber Boat by Thames Clippers’ bosses on reaching net zero
Wasaline and Uber Boat by Thames Clippers’ chief executives told Riviera Maritime Media’s Ferries of the future: navigating the path to net zero webinar what their plans involve for zero emissions.
Wasaline chief executive Peter Ståhlberg highlighted the route towards climate neutrality for the ferry operator in his presentation. The aim of Wasaline, which operates between Finland and Sweden, is for its traffic between Vasa and Umea to be climate neutral by 2030. The company is already well on the way, with a reduction in emissions of 52-67% per voyage between 2013 and 2022. In 2023, there will be a 10% reduction in CO2, followed by a 15% reduction in 2024 due to the use of alternative fuels and innovations.
Key to these figures is its Aurora Botnia passenger ferry, delivered in 2021. The target, said Mr Ståhlberg was to build the “most environmentally friendly passenger ferry on earth”.
Mr Ståhlberg commented, “When we designed the vessel we had an opportunity to use all kinds of different fuels available in market. The ship is designed for dual fuel, so it can run on diesel, bio-LNG and so on, and it has batteries, so is emissions free in harbours and only uses one generator.”
He singled out the importance of the vessel being able to adopt different fuels. “LNG was priced €20 per megawatt hour when we first did the ship design – but gas prices have now gone up to €180-200. It would be an economic catastrophe if there was only one [fuel] leg to stand on. The designers of our vessel were committed to carrying out upgrades and we took upgrades.”
Guidelines for the ferry’s design included using predictive maintenance with a long-term operational agreement, to reduce and increase opex predictability, reduce the risk of unexpected surprises and increase operational reliability.
Mr Ståhlberg commented, “Maintenance was very important for green thinking – to have the cluster close to get service and have spare parts. Therefore, 80% of the ship was made in Europe so we could use the cluster we have close by.”
Another major design guideline was to have the ferry ‘future ready to allow for upgrades and sustainability improvement’.
He singled out how the use of biogas was very important. “We use the liquid gas solution and are working to use bio gas as there are small producers of biogas in gas form in the area. We are looking at how to use it more efficiently and to get the producers close to our ship.”
Talking about future investigation and investment in alternative fuels, he said, “Everything needs an investment. It is still uncertain as to which is the right one, so we have the door open to different solutions.
“Fuel will be the big part of how get to net zero emissions. But the problem is the fuel – if we were to go on bio gas today, in the whole area (Finland and Sweden), there are three that can produce liquid biogas. If we were to use these three, we would need to use all of their production, leaving nothing for anyone else and this is a problem, it is about availability. Emissions trade has to be directed to the production of fuels so we can get it in an economical and sustainable way.”
Looking at potential future fuel options for Wasaline and Aurora Botnia, he sums up, “Hydrogen can be an option and we are investigating.” An issue is that much more space is needed for the storage of this fuel, although Mr Ståhlberg points out it can be mixed.
“Bio methanol is very interesting – production has started in the area with the wind turbines and when they produce too much electricity, they can produce methanol, so it is very interesting for us. We have also investigated fuel cells – they are quite small and really expensive but it is an options.”
Next, Uber Boat by Thames Clippers chief executive Sean Collins opened up on navigating the path to net zero. The company operates the leading river bus service on the river Thames in London. Its fleet spans 21 vessels and its investment totals £100M in pier and fleet infrastructure.
There are three vessels under newbuild to the Hybrid Hunt Class Mark 4.
Mr Collins said, “They are identical, and in the central zone [in which we operate] the speed is below 12 knots. These new vessels will operate purely on batteries in that zone.
“In the outer zones, the diesel engines, powered by Hydrated vegetable oil (HVO), will be powering the motor and jet directly. The electric motor provides power to the batteries to allow us to operate purely on battery in the central zone.”
These new vessels come on the back of a “very intense project” funded by the EU (EU Horizon 2020 TrAM project), that Uber Boat by Thames Clippers was involved in. This involved building a fully electric high-speed passenger ferry to operate in Stavanger, Norway. The route the vessel plies is 35 minutes, with a turnaround 55 of minutes. The charging period is 25-30 minutes. Mr Collins said the project demonstrated Uber Boat by Thames Clippers could not replicate a fully electric vessel for its planned newbuilds – rather it needed to be hybrid.
“It demonstrated for us and others of similar routes, with a multi-stop linear service with different tidal constraints and the weight of the vessel needing to be quite significant to be low wash, that these provided significant challenges to us replicating this ferry.”
Mr Collins explained the project demonstrated the company would not be able to build a 100% battery-operated vessel in view of the constraints its ferries operate under and also because of the High-Speed Craft Code. Therefore, the hybrid option was the closest the company can get to at this stage. However, Thames Clippers does have plans to build a cross-river ferry that will be zero emissions.
Mr Collins said, “Currently we have a diesel-powered ferry serving Canary Wharf and the intention is to make this operation 100% electric. In a combined effort with our partners, we will install infrastructure either side of the river to charge the vessel overnight, then it will have full day operating cycle from the batteries.”
Uber Boat by Thames Clippers’ partners on the project are Wight Shipyard, Aqua SuperPower, Beckett Rankine and BAE Systems.
Mr Collins presented the main features the ferry will have: capacity for 150 passengers and cycles, roll on - roll off, fully electric with a full days operation on single overnight charge, tailpipe zero, true zero emissions with power from green source, hull optimised for manoeuvrability, minimal energy requirement, stability optimised considering boarding operations and a rigid link automated mooring system.
Webinar poll results
What are the biggest challenges facing the ferry industry as it navigates the path to net-zero emissions?
Which of the following do you believe is the most important factor to consider when designing a future-proof ferry?
What do you believe is the most significant challenges to implementing infrastructure and shoreside power supply for electric (and other) ferries?
Which of the following do you believe is the most effective long-term regulatory options for achieving zero-carbon ferries?
(source: Riviera Maritime Media)
Ferries of the future: navigating the path to net zero webinar featured Uber Boat by Thames Clippers chief executive Sean Collins and Wasaline chief executive Peter Ståhlberg
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