Sustainability for ship operations in seaport areas: Technical solutions and environmental assessment

The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) has prohibited ships using of HFO in ports. For this reason, during in port operations, different strategies must be adopted, based on the use of cleaner fuels or on the transition towards marine electrical technologies. In this context, the purpose of the present research is to analyze and compare, from an environmental and economic points of view, different technical solutions for in port operations. Four alternative configurations have been proposed: Solution 1, Battery & Internal Combustion Engine (ICE); Solution 2, Battery & Fuel Cell (FC) with yellow hydrogen; Solution 3, Battery & Fuel Cell (FC) with green hydrogen, and Solution 4, Battery & Cold Ironing (CI). From the environmental perspective, the Well-to-Waves (WTW) analysis has been carried out; from the economic point of view, the investment costs and the operating costs have been calculated and compared. Moreover, an economic performance indicator, the Economic-Environmental Correlation specific Index (ECI), has been introduced and evaluated. Results highlighted that from environmental point of view, the best solution is achieved implementing the Battery & Fuel Cell (FC) solution. On the other hand, the Battery & Cold Ironing (CI) solution represents the best solution from the economic point of view, allowing to obtain the lowest ECI.