Hydrogen-based technologies in maritime sector: technical analysis and prospective

The maritime transportation sector is one of the main contributors to global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has adopted a strategy to reduce these emissions from international shipping >50% by 2050, compared to 2008’s emissions. Therefore, ship owners need to adopt solutions to bring emissions within these and other future limits by means of environmentally friendly fuels (hydrogen or hydrogen carriers) and high efficiency propulsion technologies (fuel cells). This paper focuses on the replacement of the conventional Diesel genset installed on a hybrid small-size ferry, with an innovative system based on PEMFC technology. A real case scenario is investigated: the total energy/power demand of the vessel is determined basing on a typical operational profile. Then, a preliminary redesign of its powertrain configuration is proposed along with an energy management strategy. The analysis has allowed to define the hydrogen consumption for a daily operation. Finally, different storage technologies involving both compressed and liquefied hydrogen have been considered and compared, in order to identify ship’s weight and space requirements.

Future Directions for Human-Centered Transparent Systems for Engine Room Monitoring in Shore Control Centers

Many autonomous ship projects have reflected the increasing interest in incorporating the concept of autonomy into the maritime transportation sector. However, autonomy is not a silver bullet, as exemplified by many incidents in the past involving human and machine interaction; rather it introduces new Human Factor (HF) challenges. These challenges are especially critical for Engine Room Monitoring (ERM) in Shore Control Centre (SCCs) due to the system’s complexity and the absence of human senses in the decision-making process. A transparent system is one of the potential solutions, providing a rationale behind its suggestion. However, diverse implementations of transparency schemes have resulted in prevalent inconsistencies in its effects. This literature review paper investigates 17 transparency studies published over the last eight years to identify (a) different approaches to developing transparent systems, (b) the effects of transparency on key HFs, and (c) the effects of information presentation methods and uncertainty information. The findings suggest that the explicit presentation of information could strengthen the benefits of the transparent system and could be promising for performance improvements in ERM tasks in the SCC.

Determining the awareness and knowledge of officers towards ship energy efficiency measures

Improving energy efficiency practices on ships is crucial for both economic and environmental purposes. Both technical and operational applications are made to increase energy efficiency on ships. The success of energy efficiency applications on ships depends on the effective work of seafarers. Therefore, awareness and knowledge about the energy efficiency of seafarers should be enough. The aim of the study is to determine the awareness and knowledge level of seafarers on energy efficiency on ships and to evaluate energy efficiency practices in maritime transportation companies from the perception of seafarers. In the study, the survey method was used. As a result of the survey, it was found that the knowledge level of the seafarers on ship energy efficiency was low, almost half of them did not receive energy efficiency training but they were informed about the importance of the issue. At the end of the study, it was evaluated that the awareness and knowledge level of officers should be increased in order to improve energy efficiency on ships and suggestions on this issue were determined.

THE APPLICATION OF FUZZY AHP – VIKOR HYBRID METHOD TO INVESTIGATE THE STRATEGY FOR REDUCING AIR POLLUTION FROM DIESEL POWERED VESSELS

The negative impact of air pollution on human health had become a vital issue as a result of the increasing use of fossil fuels in recent years. In this context, maritime transportation is one of the most contaminant sectors by using much more fossil fuels. Ships which have a major role in maritime transport, directly affect human health via its emissions, especially in marine areas close to the land such as around the ports, canals, and straits. In this study, strategies were gathered by evaluating International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations, European Union (EU) recommendations and the applications of the ship owner companies to reduce air pollution stem from ships, and considering the priority perception of these strategies, the effect level of the strategies at the marine areas where ships are approaching the land was analysed by the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process-Visekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (AHP- VIKOR) hybrid method. As a result of the study, the most effective strategies appeared as “Forbiddance of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) usage on Ships” and “Detection of Low Sulphur Fuel Usage by the help of Remote Detector Systems”, and it was seen that these strategies would be most effective in canal or strait passing of the ships. It was also revealed that the relevant expert opinions and IMO regulations meshed together, and it was pointed out the applications for increasing fuel quality.

APPLICATION OF INTERVAL TYPE-2 FUZZY SETS DEMATEL METHODS IN MARITIME TRANSPORTATION: THE CASE OF SHIP COLLISION

Accident analyse in marine industry is one of the critical issues for safety practitioners to prevent loss of life. Although considerable efforts were undertaken to prevent marine accident, numerous researches revealed that marine accidents are still on-going. In order to minimize accidents in the marine transportation, this paper presents a proactive decision- making tool which is integrating Decision-Making Trail and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method with interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs). As the DEMATEL enables to analyse cause and effect relationship in decision-making, the IT2FSs overcome ambiguity and vagueness of linguistic assessment of decision-makers through the DEMATEL. Thus, significant accident causal factors and their effects can be analysed on the basis of cause-effect diagram. The application of proposed approach is demonstrated with a real ship collision case. Beside its theoretical contribution, the proposed approach provides practical benefits to ship owners and operators to perceive cause and effect relationship and to avoid marine accident.

DETERMINING THE MARITIME TRANSPORTATION POLICY OF TURKEY

Maritime transportation, Turkey’s position in the sector and determining Turkey’s maritime transportation policy with the help of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) - AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) integrated method is researched within all details. First of all, the maritime transportation and the position of Turkey in maritime transportation are indicated briefly. The progress and the position of maritime transportation in the world and the status of the maritime transportation in Turkey are all examined. Secondly, the method of the research is shown and SWOT - AHP integrated method is explained. After that, SWOT - AHP method has been performed to select the best alternative. Finally; it has been discovered that SO (using strengths to catch opportunities) is the best alternative that can determine Turkey’s maritime transportation policy rather than WO (using opportunities to avoid weaknesses), ST (using strengths to avoid threats) and WT (realizing weaknesses to avoid threats).

APPLICATION OF FUZZY FMEA TO PERFORM AN EXTENSIVE RISK ANALYSIS IN MARITIME TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING

The nature of maritime transportation involves numerous hazards, which can lead to serious consequences for human life, marine environment and ship. Therefore, achieving a high level of safety is recognised as paramount in maritime industry (Akyuz, 2016). In order to achieve this purpose, this paper prompts a fuzzy based Failure Mode and Effects analysis (FMEA) to perform an extensive risk analysis in the maritime transportation industry. The method has capable of identifying potential failures and calculating risk priority number (RPN) by capturing nonlinear casual relationships between the failures. The proposed method is applied to hatch cover failures in operational aspects in bulk carrier ships since potential failures of hydraulic hatch covers have serious concerns for ship owners. Besides its theoretical insight, the paper has practical benefits to ship owners, superintendents as well as safety professionals by identifying potential failure and offering early corrective actions.