Verkís Consulting Engineers leads a €17 million energy transition project on e-fuels in international shipping. Transport and trade on the ocean must be made climate neutral. This is the goal of the European funded GAMMA project, where companies and researchers will develop and convert a bulk carrier to sail on climate-neutral fuels and green power.
In the innovation project GAMMA, work is being done to develop and test innovative solutions in energy transition by retrofitting a cargo ship in operation and then bring the solutions to market. This is according to Kjartan Due Nielsen, Innovation Manager at Icelandic engineering company Verkís, which is leading the GAMMA project.
“On behalf of the entire group of partners, I can say that we are proud and grateful that the European Commission has chosen to support the GAMMA project and efforts to convert international shipping in a greener direction. We will retrofit a bulk carrier with innovative technologies and during a demonstration campaign we will prove that it is possible to replace auxiliary generators with a new fuel system that runs on e-fuels. After proof of concept in GAMMA the next step would be to replace the main engines of a ship for a full energy transition. All in all, the project is very visionary, and could be a green game changer for shipping in the future,” says Kjartan Due Nielsen.
An innovative fuel system will be installed on the ship without compromising its operational capacity. Ammonia and green methanol will be bunkered on-to the ship and then converted into hydrogen with cracker and reformer technologies. The hydrogen will be purified and then converted into electricity with a fuel cell and thus replacing the use of the auxiliary generators running on fossil fuel. The energy needed for the conversion to hydrogen will be obtained with solar cells that will be installed on the ship.
Making international shipping more climate neutral
Traditional shipping requires a large amount of fossil fuels and emits 2.5% of greenhouse gases globally, as around 80-90% of the world’s freight is carried by cargo ships and is growing. There is a lot to work for and the project can have a lot to say when it comes to energy transition at sea.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has set a goal for the maritime sector to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions to around net-zero by 2050. The GAMMA project will contribute to this. Rapid development will have to take place to achieve the IMO’s goal of carbon neutrality. Most large cargo ships today run on fossil fuels, and they have a long lifespan. Therefore, it is important to retrofit ships and update them with green technical solutions.
More about the GAMMA project
The GAMMA project began in January 2024 and will run for five years. GAMMA stands for Green Ammonia and bioMethanol fuel MAritime Vessels and involves 16 partners from Europe:
Verkís (Iceland), ANT Topic (Italy), Fraunhofer (Germany), Aurelia (Netherlands), Ballard (Denmark), Sea Green Engineering (Italy), Energy Cluster Denmark (Denmark), SINTEF (Norway), Solbian (Italy), Amethyste (France), Elkon Elektrik (Turkey), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), ARM Engineering (France), RINA (Germany), Amnis Pura (Portugal) and Dotcom (Italy).
If you want to know more about the GAMMA project, the project coordinator will be at stand E42 and presentations about the project will be held between 11.30-12.00 in the presentation area on both Wednesday and Thursday.
