FASTWATER (FAST Track to Clean and Carbon-Neutral WATERborne Transport through Gradual Introduction of Methanol Fuel).

Scope:

FASTWATER focuses on methanol, a clean fuel, available in large quantities in most ports today and offering a pathway to a climate-neutral synthetic fuel produced from renewables. FASTWATER aims to start a fast transitionary path to move waterborne transport away from fossil fuels and reduce its pollutant emissions to zero impact, through the use of methanol fuel. The FASTWATER consortium consists of 15 partners with a strong track record on methanol projects (particularly for waterborne transport) and includes shipyards, a shipowner, engine manufacturers, an equipment supplier, a classification society, a methanol producer, a major port and research institutes. The FASTWATER project has an overall budget of €6.35M over 4 years with a grant of €4.99M from EU. 

Website: https://www.fastwater.eu/

Objective:

  • develop and demonstrate an evolutionary pathway for methanol technology, including retrofit solutions as well as next-generation systems.
  • develop, demonstrate and commercialize universal, scalable retrofit kits, medium speed and high-speed methanol engines.

To be achieved by:

  • retrofitting of a harbour tug (inland vessel), a pilot boat and a coast guard vessel (marine vessels) to methanol operation; and commercialize universal, scalable retrofit kits for converting ships to methanol use for a wide power range (200 kW – 4 MW).
  • conversion concept for a river cruise ship (inland vessel) for a fuel change from diesel to a methanol-driven propulsion system, and Commercialize both medium speed (MS) and high speed (HS) methanol engines for shipping.
  • complete supply chain from renewable methanol producers to ship bunkering, including setting up bunkering procedures for safe and efficient bunkering in a port environment.
  • training programme for crew, gain experience with it during the project, and formulate best practices for use beyond FASTWATER.
  • develop rules & regulations for methanol as a fuel (including a methanol fuel standard) working with regulatory agencies.

Work packages:

  • WP1 - Methanol engine retrofit solutions [HZM]
  • WP2 - Harbour tug demo [PoA]
  • WP3 - Pilot Boat demo [SCA]
  • WP4 - Coast guard vessel demo [ST]
  • WP5 - River cruise ship conversion concept [MW]
  • WP6 - Next-generation methanol engines [ULUND]
  • WP7 - Fuel logistics, standards, safety and training [SSPA]
  • WP8 - Business Models and Dissemination [BAL]
  • WP9 - Project management [ULUND]

Partners:

  • Lunds Universitet [ULUND ], Sweden
  • Balance Technology Consulting GMBH [BAL], Germany
  • Anglo Belgian Corporation nv [ABC], Belgium
  • Heinzmann GmbH & Co. KG [HZM], Germany
  • Havenbedrijf Antwerpen [PoA], Belgium
  • Universiteit Gent [UGent], Belgium
  • ScandiNAOS AB [SCA], Sweden
  • SSPA Sweden AB [SSPA], Sweden
  • MEYER WERFT GmbH & Co. KG [MW], Germany
  • Lloyds Register EMEA IPS [LR ], United Kingdom
  • National Technical University of Athens [NTUA], Greece
  • SOUPER TOYS SKAFI EPE [ST], Greece
  • Methanol Institute [MI], Belgium
  • Methanex Europe S.A. /N.V. [MTX ], Belgium
  • Swedish Maritime Administration [SMA], Sweden

Funding:

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 860251