[ 133 ] SEEING THE WHOLE CO2 EMISSIONS PICTURE In shipping, the ferry industry has been leading the way when it comes to implementing alternative fuels and battery propulsion. It is generally understood that the smaller the ‘direct’ emissions footprint from ship propulsion, the bigger the ‘indirect’ emissions footprint from the construction of the ship. According to Anders Ørgård, chief commercial officer and majority shareholder of OSK Design, reducing the direct CO2 emissions should remain a priority, but shipowners cannot turn a blind eye to the indirect contributors of CO2 emissions: notably the manufacturing process of a ship and all the components of which it is made. A recent study conducted by OSK Design revealed that for a fullelectric ferry, powered by green electricity, nonoperation-related CO2 emissions could reach well in excess of 55 per cent of the total CO2 emissions produced during the ship’s 20-year lifecycle. This study provides food for thought for responsible shipowners and illustrates that a holistic lifecycle approach is paramount when considering a newbuild. “Rather than exclusively focusing on the emissions from operations, shipowners should make a cradleto-grave lifecycle analysis,” Ørgård says. “A lifecycle analysis offers the opportunity to develop a build strategy, reducing the emissions during both construction and operation, thus further optimising the ship’s operational life.” To lend weight to its theory, OSK Design made a lifecycle assessment of Grotte, a 2021-built, 50m long full-electric double-ended ro-pax vessel operating a 12-minute shuttle service. Notwithstanding the short distance it covers, the study is representative of a large ro-pax ferry. The assessment, which covered the six stages in a ship’s life, all the way from mining the resources and processing the steel to recycling the ships, was executed in line with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. OSK Design calculated that during its entire lifespan, from cradle to grave, Grotte would produce 2,508 tonnes CO2-eq from the ship’s operation with 1,833 tonnes CO2-eq attributable to the manufacturing of the vessel. As the ship and its materials will be recycled upon demolition, scrapping of the vessel will have a positive CO2-eq footprint of 1,124.54 tonnes. The tonne CO2-eq from the Grotte’s operation still surpasses the tonne CO2-eq from the ship’s construction by a good margin, according to Ørgård. “Quite frankly, our analysis clearly illustrates that a zero-emission ship doesn’t exist,” he says. “To put it simply, one can no longer ignore the CO2 emissions generated from manufacturing which can be more than 50 per cent of the cradle-to-grave CO2 footprint in some cases.” Following this in-depth lifecycle assessment, OSK Design is ready to apply the knowledge gained in future newbuilding projects, helping shipowners to develop a build strategy to drastically reduce CO2 emissions during the construction processes. “A lifecycle analysis already starts in the ship’s concept stage,” Ørgård adds, “thus allowing the development of a build strategy which can be taken into account when we calculate the total cost of ownership and the total cradle-to-grave CO2 burden.” As the steel structure accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the CO2 footprint in a ship’s construction, a strategy should be developed to focus on the hull and steel structure already in the design stage. “One should also consider the country of build,” Ørgård clarifies. “In many countries, steel production is coaldriven. As part of their build strategy, shipowners should equally consider where to build their ships and where to purchase the steel.” Besides the steel structure, erection of a ferry’s accommodation configuration is another significant polluter, accounting for about 10 per cent of the total building process. Ørgård concludes: “Our interior design team has developed a tool to calculate the CO2 emissions from the accommodation. This is yet another example demonstrating that we are with the shipowner all the way.” LEGACY
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