Academics unite with industry for flexible fuel solutions
Finland is embracing collaboration to develop innovative and clean solutions for maritime transport and offroad machinery.
Through a collaborative approach, a Finnish consortium is demonstrating how academics and industry professionals can prepare together for the maritime fuels of the future. The project, named Flexible Clean Propulsion Technologies (Flex-CPT), has ambitions to cut emissions by up to 100%.
Flex-CPT brings together research organisations and leading companies across Finland, including Wärtsilä Finland Oy with AGCO Power Oy, while the University of Vaasa acts as consortium coordinator. There are 17 partners in the country in addition to 12 global partnerships, all with a clearly defined role. The support of Business Finland, the national founding agency, erected the framework for the collaboration.
The project builds upon the research organisations’ academic expertise in flexible, clean propulsion technologies and Finland’s track record for maritime and powertrain development. Project leader, Professor Maciej Mikulski at the University of Vaasa’s energy technology department, comments on what is involved to foster such a wide collaboration.
“There are many ingredients to establishing such collaboration. First of all, there needs to be an independent industry with a governing challenge and strong R&D [research & development] culture,” he explains.
“Academia and industry need to speak the same language. This goes both ways, and we succeeded by getting to the same table scientists with industrial backgrounds and engineers with scientific curiosity. In complex projects these discussions need to be facilitated with efficient project management.”
According to Professor Mikulski, this is all for a common purpose, since the energy transition is challenging for small players, and “there is huge need to create a critical mass for co-innovation”.
Industry decarbonisation key
The flexible fuel systems that will result from Flex-CPT will help to drive maritime decarbonisation; such technologies appear essential, and that is why the project focuses on supporting these developments.
“Fuel Flexibility is the only way to make decarbonisation of the marine transport an economically feasible reality,” Professor Mikulski emphasises. “From the end-user side, shipping companies need certainty that the powertrains are future-proof in terms of fuel adaptivity.”
Technically, there are two main dimensions in developing these flexible systems. The first concerns the hardware, and the second centres around the control systems. “New fuels add a third dimension to the equation, exponentially increasing the design and maintenance effort,” expands Professor Mikulski.
“The project addresses these changes by finding feasible fuel combinations running under unified hardware architecture. It further provides smart control and rapid prototype methods to allow adaptive calibration to changes in fuel composition.”
Finland seems to be providing a clear example of how decarbonising the marine and maritime sectors is a team effort, and not a commercial competition, although, the commercial organisations involved should also see the benefit. Wilhelm Gustafsson, Team Leader, Energy Efficiency at cruise ship developer Meyer Turku confirmed: “Modern cruise ships operating in varying conditions, profiles and areas, require a lot from the powertrain technology and ship integration to reach true net-zero operation.”
Meanwhile, Wärtsilä’s Director, Research & Technology Development, Jonas Åkerman said: “By partnering with [the] Flexible Clean Propulsion Technologies project, Wärtsilä is taking a significant step towards realizing our Zero Emission Marine vision.”
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Image: Project Leader, Professor Maciej Mikulski and Senior Researcher Katriina Sirviö; credit: University of Vaasa, Harri Huusko.
