Initiated by EUROYARDS, BESST aims to achieve a breakthrough in competitiveness, environmentally friendliness and safety of EU built ships. Focusing on passenger ships, ferries and mega-yachts, the results will to a large extend be applicable also to other ships. A holistic life cycle performance assessment on ship level will guide the technical developments on system level, clustered in System Groups. The results will be integrated in 3 virtual show cases (ship concepts) demonstrating technical solutions as well as life cycle impact compared to current designs. Optimization tools will be developed and applied in a cooperative process proving feasibility, adaptability and efficiency to future commercial applications. The estimated overall impact of BESST will result in a reduction of life cycle cost of about 120 M€ per PanMax ship and a reduction of CO2 emissions by 12% per ship and year, just to mention a few key figures. The key areas of technical developments include:

• Space Optimisation and Easy Maintenance
• Improving Payload to Gross Tonnage Ratio
• Cost Efficient Building Processes and Refurbishment
• Improved Energy Efficiency and Reduced Emissions
• Noise and Vibration
• Improved Reliability through Model-Based Design and Condition Monitoring
• Optimization of Logistic Chains
• Improving Safety and Security

The consortium is formed by 8 leading EU shipyards. A global market share of 96% for cruise ships and 31% for ferries ensures the critical mass for applications on EU level. In addition, 20 research institutes and universities, 5 classification societies and 31 ship equipment suppliers (17 of them
SME) are part of the research network of BESST. Close interaction with ship operators will be achieved through a dedicated Advisory Group. A multi-level management structure, based on the experience of the shipyards in previous R&D and commercial projects, will ensure efficient and targeted work of the consortium to ensure the envisaged impact.

EU CargoXpress is going to develop a gruondbreaking innovative cargo vessel to meet the expectations of green transport and contributing to decongesting of Europe´s roads. It gives particular attention to the role of SMEs not only in the composition of the consortium (2 out of 6 industry partners are SMEs plus 6 research institutions and a public body) but also when delivering the design of the cargo vessel of the future which is particularly suited for the small and medium sized European Shipyards and equipment suppliers.

The vessel Concept EU-CargoXpress goes far beyond existing approaches from aspects of

• ship equipment (combined superstructure with bridge, crane and sail)
• new propulsion Concept (superconducting energy conversion, PODs)
• ship structure (lightweight fit for serial production)
• maintenance (modularised/ standardised and „boxed“ equipment for immediate exchange rather than repair on board)
• ship  operation (sailor in home base, thruogh fixed routes)

and promotes a logistic philosophy which has the the potential to revolutionize the Short Sea Shipping (SSS) business in the Motorways-of-the-Sea. It follows the Ryanair approach which has developed service to hundreds of small airports. EU-CARGOXPRESS will do a similar thing it provides a high tech vessel for medium and small marine or fluvial ports to shorten considerably the remaining road-transport. 

This will clearly impact on CO2 and other pollutants emission. First calculations show a potential of total fuel savings of 10,3 Mt/year which accounts for 0,63 % of total EU25 energy consumption per year, when applying the concept to the next 3000 newbuildings for SSS. 

The traditional fire safety regulations that apply to ship design have been described as inadequate in two ways: (i) they can impose constraints on novel designs, and (ii) novel designs can have features that do not satisfy the premise of existing rules, thus making approval more difficult and potentially leading to unsafe ships. In order to remedy this problem FIREPROOF will develop a universally applicable regulatory framework for maritime fire safety based on probabilistic analysis and numerical models of ignition, growth and impact of fires. In principle, the framework will be similar to the well established probabilistic damage stability regulation (SOLAS Ch. II-1). The project will address fire risk of passenger ships only.

The methodology of the proposed fire safety regulation will consist of (i) a mathematical model for the generation of fire scenarios (with the appropriate probability distribution function for each involved parameter), and (ii) numerical models for the consequence assessment of the generated scenarios. For any given passenger ship (existing or new) a large number of scenarios will be generated and their consequences will be assessed. The results will be aggregated to suitable fire risk metrics, constraints on which will serve as statutory regulations. In this way, design creativity and innovation will coexist with higher level of safety.

TARGETS – Targeted Advanced Research for Global Efficiency of Transportation Shipping Energy efficiency and environmental consideration are today’s driving force for ship operators and ship builders alike. Economic pressure and international legislation require a sensitive use of energy resources and a reduction of the associated emissions. The TARGETS (Targeted Advanced Research for Global Efficiency of Transportation Shipping) project sets out to provide substantial improvements to the overall ship energy by adopting a holistic approach to energy generation, transmission, consumption and operational management with a focus on life-cycle issues

The Dynamic Energy Modell created in TARGETS integrates component-based knowledge of ship resistance and propulsion, auxiliary energy transformation and transmission at shiplevel. In this way, the simulation of the energy efficiency of a ship (both at design and operational stage) and the energy management onboard can be achieved. The TARGETS project is jointly funded by EC 7th framework programme and the industry. Research Topics and results: TARGETS takes a holistic view at the causes of the use of energy during ship operation, ways to minimise them and the use of additional, alternative forms of energy for ship operations. In doing so, the project methodology addresses:

• The most important hydrodynamic causes for energy consumption, i.e. ship resistance and propulsion. Promising alternative technologies for auxiliary energy generation (from non-fossil sources).
• The identification of Energy Saving Potentials based on a large number of energy audits performed on board ships.
• The management of energy usage onboard.
• The integration of technologies into a holistic energy simulation system.

The main objective of the ThroughLife project is to develop and prove new approaches for through-life asset management for selected technologies and application scenarios in the maritime industry. This will be done by considering all life cycle phases of the technologies concerned in view of their cost efficiency, environmental performance and safety. Special emphasis will be given to the identification, elaboration and demonstration of innovative joint services of the main actors in the ship life cycle, i.e. primarily new building yards, repair yards and ship operators.

Retrofitting is defined as the installation onboard ships of state-of-the-art or innovative components or systems and could in principle be driven by the need to meet new regulatory standards or by the ship owner interest to upgrade to higher operational standards. Retrofitting should become an established practice in the shipping industry involving the entire value chain and exploring the possibilities that may open to the industry on a continuous basis. To identify worthy retrofitting candidates and select appropriate (green) technologies that can be suitably fitted at minimum cost and lead time, while considering the condition of the particular ship: service profile, remaining life cycle and the governing and expected regulations.

The focus points of the project RETROFIT are:

• Methods to identify ship candidates for retrofitting;
• Methods and tools for simulating the working of various configurations of ship main and auxiliary systems;
• Methods and tools for “reverse engineering” enabling to build product models suitable for the retrofitting process;
• Methods and tools to control ships energy and emission performance: decision support systems for emission control and energy optimization over the entire service profile;
• Design-for-retrofitting methodology based on standardisation and modularisation principles;
• Efficient corresponding yard processes for minimum out-of-business time for retrofitting ships.

The aim of the GRIP project is to reduce fuel consumption in shipping by 5% (with individual ships up to 10%) and thus reduce exhaust gas emissions. Its first objective is to give a sound basis for the choice of energy-saving devices (ESD) for ship owners. The second is to give insight into the detailed requirements on the device design by performing an analysis of the interaction between hull and propeller and the structural integrity of the device.

For many devices available on the market, it is not clear if and why energy is saved. The choice of an ESD for a ship owner is mainly based on trust. Within GRIP, the most promising ESDs will be studied for several ship types, giving insight into flow changes, relating them to performance improvement and energy savings.

Many ships come from Far Eastern yards who keep the hull lines secret. Therefore, a ship owner cannot order an ESD without returning to the original ship yard. Within GRIP, we will develop a digitising technique for determining the hull lines, allowing the ship owner to order the device from, and have it fitted in any European ship yard.

The project will deliver an early analysis tool for ship owners to characterise the potential energy savings and associated costs by retrofitting a device on a ship. The second deliverable will be an optimised yard process in combination with digitising of the hull lines. The final deliverable is a detailed design procedure for manufacturers, surveyors and hydrodynamic institutes.

The objectives will be validated by designing new ESDs for several ship types. For one of these devices, validation of the energy-saving will be obtained in speed trials.

The consortium consists of world-leading hydrodynamic institutes, propeller designers, a European ship operator, a major European yard, a yard association, and a classification society; bringing together a wealth of knowledge on propeller-hull interaction, structural integrity and manufacturing processes.

HILDA will deliver a cost effective, low distortion welding process for EU shipyards to allow them to maintain competitiveness
and produce light, strong, more fuel efficient vessels. The solid state technique will enable the modular construction of
dimensionally accurate, high strength, corrosion resistant fabrications across the entire range of steels, enabling the
introduction of stronger, tougher, corrosion resistant steels into the industry.
HILDA will develop the fundamental metallurgical knowledge required to predict the complex phase changes and stress
regimes present in welding steel. This will enable the proven, energy efficient, low hazard and environmentally benign
technology of friction stir welding, widely deployed in aluminium construction for the aerospace and rail industries, to be
transferred to steel shipbuilding.
To achieve this breakthrough, HILDA will use real world data from friction stir welding high strength low alloy steels as an
input to develop a computer model of the thermomechanical processing process at the heart of the solid state welding
technique. This model will predict the phase changes, heat variations and resultant stresses associated with welding steel
and generate guidelines for producing high strength welds with minimal distortion.
The output from this predictive model will be used to create an expert system of easy to use software plug ins for existing
FE design code that can be used by shipyards to design and manufacture vessels in accordance with Classification Society
requirements. The code will be validated against a real demonstration fabrication.

• HILDA will generate technical, economic, safety and environmental benefits for EU shipyards.
• HILDA will advance EU computational modelling capability in the field of multi-phase simulation.
• Hilda will produce weld codes useful to many other industries fabricating steel

Als Reaktion auf die Forderung des Calls nach kosteneffizienter Modernisierung der Binnenschiffflotte für den Gütertransport, entwickelt das Projekt MoVe IT! eine Reihe von Optionen für die Modernisierung von Binnenschiffen, die den Herausforderungen durchÜberalterung der Flotte und Einflüssen des Klimawandels gerecht werden. Zudem dient das Projekt als Entscheidungshilfe für Reeder bezüglich der Implementierung dieser Optionen. Als asis dient das durch Neubauten gewonnene Wissen und der Technologietransfer aus anderen Transportbereichen, die zur Verbesserung von Energieeffizienz und ökologischem Betrieb beitragen. Zusätzlich werden Lösungen für den Übergang zu neuen ADN Regeln für den Transport von gefährlichen Gütern und den Betrieb in der Zeit nach der Nutzung fossiler Brennstoffe entwickelt.

Einer der Schwerpunkte des MoVe IT! Projekts ist die Modernisierung des Schiffsanstriebsstrangs und der Bordstromversorgung in Hinblick auf die Bedingungen, denen das Schiff in seiner verlängerten Lebenszeit ausgesetzt sein wird. Daraus ergibt sich eine signifikant bessere Leistung der neuen Schiffssysteme im Vergleich zu den alten, die meist nur für einen bestimmten Betriebszustand entwickelt wurden. Hierzu werden zunächst die zukünftigen Bedingungen der Binnenschiffe mit Hilfe von Messungen bestimmt. Anhand der aus den Messungen gewonnenen Fahrprofile, werden die Antriebssysteme und die hydrodynamischen Eigenschaften bewertet, um optimale integrierte Lösungen mit minimalen Investitionen und ökologischen Einflüssen bei gleichzeitiger erhöhter Effizienz zu entwickeln. Zu den Forschungsaktivitäten gehören unter anderem neue Konfigurationen der Antriebssysteme, alternative Brennstoffe, Methoden zur Nachrüstung vorhandener Motoren, verbesserte Schiffslinien sowie die Entwicklung von Systemen, die den Schiffsführer bei der effizienten Routenführung unterstützen sollen. Des Weiteren werden wesentliche Modernisierungsmaßnahmen untersucht, um die Hauptabmessungen des Schiffes in wirtschaftlicher und ökologischer Hinsicht zu erhöhen und überalterte Einhüllen-Tankschiffe so nachzurüsten, dass sie den neuen ADN Bestimmungen entsprechen.

MoVe IT! konzentriert sich zudem auf die Bewertung der Lösungen in Hinblick auf die Wirtschaftlichkeit als auch ihren Beitrag zu ökologischen Verbesserungen. Schiffseigentümer sollen durch die Entwicklungen bei der Modernisierung ihrer Schiffe Unterstützung erhalten, um die Schwelle für die Akzeptanz der entwickelten Lösungen zu senken.

Materials and structures are called adaptive if they can change certain properties in a predictable manner due to the forces acting on them (passive) or by means of built in actuators (active). Those materials and structures are referred to as smart if they provide best performance when operation circumstances change.

The project ADAM4EVE focuses on the development and assessment of applications of such materials and structures in the shipbuilding industry. The types of materials and structures are – adaptable ship hull structures for optimised hydrodynamic properties depending on varying cruise speed, – smart underwater coatings with antifouling properties in harbour and low resistance during voyage, – adaptive materials for noise and vibration damping of ship engines to avoid induction of vibrations into the ship hull and – adaptive outfitting materials that improve ships‟ serviceability and safety.

Technical developments in the project are structured in three groups:

• Materials and structures development: Based on available research results and known applications from other industries, adaptive and smart materials and structures will be adopted and further developed in order to make them applicable in the maritime industry.
•  Solution development: Driven by different shipyards, several application case studies will be performed, in order to achieve customised solutions for particular vessel types and their individual requirements; classification societies will assure that the solutions comply with existing rules and regulations.
•  Enabling and assessment of technologies: This group of activities provides support to the other ones on the field of testing, assessment of safety as well as economical and ecological impact, and advice for production, operation and dismantling. Due to the novelty of the solutions to be pursued, further development of the required validation methods and tools is intended, as well as suggestions for standardisation.