A comparative life cycle assessment study on environmental performances between battery powered and conventional marine vessels

Wang, Haibin and Boulougouris, Evangelos and Theotokatos, Gerasimos and Priftis, Alexandros and Shi, Guangyu and Zhou, Peilin; Soares, Carlos Guedes, ed. (2021) A comparative life cycle assessment study on environmental performances between battery powered and conventional marine vessels. In: Maritime Technology and Engineering 5 Volume 2. CRC Press, PRT, pp. 119-128. ISBN 9780367773779

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Abstract

International Maritime Organization (IMO) has initialized a new strategy on greenhouse gas (GHG) to reduce 50% of GHG from international shipping by 2050 comparing to 2008. Recently, solutions, like fuel cell and renewable energy, have been proposed by technology providers and ship designers. Bat-tery-powered ship is a solution that can lead to a considerable reduction or even elimination of gaseous emissions, thus limiting fossil fuels consumptions. This paper aims to determine the benefits and drawbacks of marine battery propulsion system by conducting a comparative study using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It holistically evaluates the performances of the proposed system and the respective conventional one, ap-plied on a 33-meter-long short-route ferry operating on the Thames. The results indicate the battery-powered system instead of marine engines can reduce the environmental impacts and GHG from ships, which fulfils the IMO requirements and proves the emission control potential of battery-powered systems.