How Wärtsilä is leading the marine ecosystem towards zero emissions

Decarbonisation in the marine industry will not happen overnight, but Wärtsilä’s Zero Emission Marine (ZEM) initiative is actively working to speed up the move to clean energy.Decarbonisation in the marine industry will not happen overnight, but Wärtsilä’s Zero Emission Marine (ZEM) initiative is actively working to speed up the move to clean energy.

“Going green in all marine segments at once is not going to happen,” says Kenneth Widell, Senior Project Manager, Sustainable Fuels & Decarbonisation at Wärtsilä. “When we manage to show that it is profitable to go green, we can accelerate the transition.”

ZEM is a four-year ecosystem project led by Wärtsilä with the target of reaching a 60% greenhouse gas reduction in the maritime industry by 2030. In addition, all Wärtsilä-driven ecosystem products will be carbon-neutral or negative by 2050.

Supported by EUR 20 million in funding from Business Finland, ZEM is based at Wärtsilä’s Sustainable Technology Hub in Vaasa. Partners within the ecosystem include fuel manufacturers, energy producers, shipping companies, logistics providers, research organisations and regulatory bodies, among others.

The marine industry currently relies on fossil fuels for 99% of its energy, says Widell, and the ZEM initiative focuses on four key areas – new technologies, green fuels, optimised operations, and outcome-based business models – to significantly reduce this.

Working together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The idea behind ZEM is to engage different players from all parts of the marine industry to collaborate in addressing questions related to decarbonisation.

“It’s important because we have huge global challenges and we need to join forces within the marine industry to seek solutions that can bring CO2 levels down,” says Patrik Malka, Senior Manager, Ecosystem Development at Wärtsilä.

With a total budget of EUR 7.2m over three years, the first project awarded funding under ZEM is the Materials for CO2-neutral processes in resource-intensive industries, or MASCOT. Coordinated by state-owned research institution VTT, other companies participating alongside Wärtsilä in the project are Andritz, Exote, Metso Outotec, Neste and Nordic Tank.

“The main goal of MASCOT is to generate a knowledge base related to the materials’ behaviour and performance under the new industrial operation conditions and develop prevention strategies for degradation,” explains Elina Huttunen-Saarivirta, Research Professor at VTT.

We have huge global challenges and we need to join forces within the marine industry to seek solutions that can bring CO2 levels down.

Patrik Malka, Senior Manager, Ecosystem Development at Wärtsilä

“MASCOT aims to lay the basis for new carbon-neutral products and processes by enabling their implementation and continuous safe operation, thus creating new business opportunities for partners and their value chain, as well as other Finnish companies working in the fields of new materials, hydrogen economy and circular economy.”

The results will benefit a wide range of sectors beyond maritime – from material producers to their end users in the chemical, transportation and logistics industries, and technology providers in the pulp and paper and metals industries.

Another project granted funding as part of ZEM is the University of Vaasa-led Silent Engine initiative, which seeks to create high-level expertise in noise and vibration management for the marine industry to meet increasingly stricter noise emission requirements.

With a budget of €1.3 million, the three-year Silent Engine project will see the university and Wärtsilä working alongside Meyer Turku, AGCO Power, KONE and Vibrol to develop silent and vibration-free innovations for the green energy transition.

“Hydrogen especially is very reactive, so it burns much faster than conventional fuels. We need to make sure there is no additional noise and vibration while using it,” explains Widell. “The expertise that Silent Engine brings to the ecosystem will help accelerate the transition to carbon-neutral fuels in the marine industry.”

Collaboration vital for technologies to be accepted

When working on research and innovation, collaboration will be essential to gaining market acceptance for new technologies and developments, adds Malka. “We have such a big shift coming up that single companies will have difficulties in getting a foothold.”

This will also become increasingly important amid soaring global energy prices which will not only drive innovation but also spur developments in achieving greater efficiencies in existing operations, adds Widell.

When we work together, and all the partners believe in the added value of the green transition, we can take the next step in the development.

Kenneth Widell, Senior Project Manager, Sustainable Fuels & Decarbonisation at Wärtsilä

MASCOT and Silent Engine may be the first, but they certainly won’t be the last projects coming out of ZEM. Wärtsilä is continuously looking for partners – both for this initiative and others to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the marine industry.

Widell believes that the green energy transition will largely be business-driven instead of being defined by regulation – which is where projects such as ZEM will prove vital. “That’s the beauty of these ecosystem projects. When we work together, and all the partners believe in the added value of the green transition, we can take the next step in the development,” he says.

“If we can prove something is good business, and the early birds are willing to invest, it will inevitably increase the number of followers in the segment in question. Sooner or later, it will get to a point where you’re out of business unless you are green.”

Written by
Natalie Marchant
Article is originally published on site ZERO EMISSION MARINE 2030

Image: (Adobe Stock & Ian Taylor on Unsplash ).

Finland an innovation leader in EU

The European Innovation Scoreboard 2022 slots Finland second behind Sweden in terms of innovation performance, with both countries earning the status of an innovation leader.

Sweden and Finland were both dubbed innovation leaders in the scoreboard, performing at a rate that is almost 136 per cent of the EU average. The former edged out the latter for the top spot by 0.2 percentage points with a rate of 135.7 per cent.

Finland stands out favourably in the comparison due to strengths such as lifelong learning, public-private co-publications and collaboration between small and medium enterprise. Indeed, Finland’s performance is increasing at a rate higher than the EU as a whole, and enjoys a faster growing economy and higher per capita income when compared with the bloc.

Business process innovators, sales of innovative products and broadband penetration have increased noticeably in Finland since last year. There is still room for improvement, however. The likes of resource productivity, government support for business R&D, non-R&D innovation expenditures, medium and high-tech goods exports and population with tertiary education in Finland were all flagged as relative weaknesses.

Europe is seeking to be technological and commercial leader in strategic areas such as space. Image: Adobe

 

Elsewhere, Denmark (134.8%), the Netherlands (129.3%) and Belgium (128.8%) earned the status of an innovation leader for outperforming the average by at least 25 per cent. Overall, the scoreboard reveals that innovation performance in the 27-country bloc has improved by about 10 per cent since 2021, with 19 members registering an improvement and eight a decline in performance.

While Australia, Canada, Korea and the US continue to outperform the EU, the bloc has closed the gap to its global competitors and overtaken Japan since 2021.

“Europe’s autonomy and competitiveness will depend on our capacity to become a technological and commercial leader in strategic areas such as space, defence, hydrogen, batteries, chips, quantum and high-performance computing,” stated Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market.

The EU’s innovation agenda, support schemes for startups and small and medium enterprises, industrial alliances, and important projects of common interest are already yielding innovative projects across the continent.

“This is how we translate our scientific excellence into technological and industrial leadership, and quality jobs in Europe,” said Breton.

 

Article is originally published on Good News from Finland page.

Image: (Header photo from Collaboration between small and medium enterprises, such as at Turku’s SHIFT Business Festival, is one of Finland’s innovative strengths. Image: SHIFT Business Festival).

New aerospace research centre to accelerate aviation business in Finland

The LIFT Future Aerospace Centre has started its operation in Finland at the beginning of September. LIFT will bring together actors from the private, public and R&D sectors to create new aviation innovations in response to the growing demand.

At this point, the partners joining the innovation cluster with the host organisation Redstone AERO Oy include VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk) and the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI. The cooperation is aimed at strengthening research, development and innovation collaboration (RDI) in future aviation, while supporting the emergence of new business within the field in Finland.

Redstone AERO has built a future aerospace research centre at the Helsinki-East Aerodrome, which will provide the facilities for the RDI needs. This will contribute building a strong innovation ecosystem together with relevant partners.

The innovation cluster for future aviation brings together the industry professionals

The new research centre celebrated its opening on 1 September at the Tech Runway event, which was held in Pyhtää for the third time. The Tech Runway conference and expo brought together altogether 300 aviation professionals. In addition to the LIFT members, this year the other key partners of the event were the Association of Finnish Defence and Aerospace Industries – AFDA and Saab. There were also plenty of people representing the authorities and government, such as the police, the Finnish Defence Forces and the Finnish Border Guard, to discuss the changed security situation in Europe.

“VTT sees the role of unmanned aviation growing rapidly worldwide. Finland must seize these revolutionary opportunities and aim for a pioneering role. At the now established LIFT Research Centre, VTT’s RDI focus areas include urban air mobility, the development of airspace management for unmanned aviation, drone swarms and the increased autonomy of the solutions,” says Hannu Karvonen, Senior Scientist at VTT.

VTT advances the same themes in the EU’s SESAR 3 joint undertaking. The LIFT cluster is planned to function as a home base for bringing together Finnish actors in the industry for EU-level networks and development projects.

Rapid increase in the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS)

This year, unmanned aviation has been in the public eye particularly because such equipment has been used by authorities and for defence purposes. Future developments in the industry will be very interesting in this respect, and LIFT welcomes various actors to join the co-creation efforts.

“The use of UAS in civil solutions and applications for authorities has grown rapidly. However, increasing the use on a large scale will not be possible before the operations of unmanned aviation can be safely integrated with traditional manned aviation. Finland has excellent opportunities and competence to join the development of this future industry,” says Tomi Oravasaari, a professional pilot and pioneer in drone research, who acts as the Director of the RDI unit of NELI (North European Logistics Institute) at Xamk.

“The LIFT Future Aerospace Centre will further strengthen the sector and RDI, as the aerodrome environment is transforming into an excellent testbed, providing an improved framework for the activities,” Oravasaari says. “The LIFT network cooperation and the aerodrome environment provide excellent support for Xamk’s applied research, which develops methods for coordinating current manned aviation and drone flight operations in a safety-oriented manner and creates practical solutions for long-distance drone flights between various airports. This paves the way for the emergence of commercial solutions for drone logistics, among other things,” adds Oravasaari.

The aviation sector is currently undergoing a major transformation. New technologies, the coronavirus epidemic and international sanctions have had an extensive impact on the whole sector in recent years. There are hundreds of organisations involved in aviation in Finland. However, the broad scope of the sector is not generally known.

“One of the key competence areas of the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) is spatial data research related to drones, which plays a key role in the development of autonomous and low-emission aviation applications of the future. In research, we are developing more efficient, accurate and reliable methods for both localisation and navigation of drones and data analysis than we have today,” says Research Professor Eija Honkavaara from the FGI. The National Land Survey of Finland also carries out significant mapping, aerial photography and laser scanning activities, with both its own equipment and through commissioning the data acquisition from consultants. Each year, a total of ten different aircraft are used for collecting the National Land Survey’s mapping data. “The LIFT Research Centre will now open up unprecedented opportunities for RDI activities in the field,” says Honkavaara.

The role of Helsinki-East Aerodrome is growing

The Helsinki-East Aerodrome area is developing into not only the second airport in Helsinki and the Southern Finland region but also a prototype for efficiently operating a new kind of an aerodrome. “Future air traffic and on-demand transport services will need a much denser airport network than we have today. At LIFT, we are developing a concept that allows airports to be planned, built, licensed and operated more efficiently than before. We call the new model by the name digital airport,” says Esa Korjula, Chairman of the Board of Redstone AERO, the company operating the Helsinki-East Aerodrome.

Article is originally published on VTT news.

Image:  VTT

Further information:

Hannu Karvonen, Senior Scientist, Project Manager and Ecosystem Lead for Autonomous Systems, VTT, +358 400 216 396, firstname.lastname@vtt.fi

Tomi Oravasaari, Director of the RDI Unit, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk), +358 44 702 8289, firstname.lastname@xamk.fi

Eija Honkavaara, Research Professor, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI, + 358 29 531 4716, firstname.lastname@nls.fi

Esa Korjula, Chairman of the Board, Redstone AERO Oy, + 358 40 041 4115, firstname.lastname@redstone.aero

 

A young researcher’s experiences from ITS World Congress Los Angeles

The 28th ITS World Congress was held in Los Angeles, California in September. I was lucky to be a part of this event by being a co-author in a conference paper I got to present there. Even having not visited the United States before I knew that the city planning across the pond is different compared to Finnish or European cities by being very car-centric. What I didn’t realize was that the car-centricity in the United States means that even the most famous pathway in the world, the Walk of Fame, actually had four lines for car traffic and street parking on both sides of the street.

Transport engineers and researchers are struggling with the problems caused by private cars: Traffic accidents, microplastics, particle emissions, inefficient land use, etc. Solutions offered to these problems often rely on new technology, but the root problem remains unsolved. Private motoring needs to be reduced and to achieve that alternative transport options need to exist and they need to be accessible, affordable, and safe for everyone.

Goal Zero – Pure imagination or achievable objective?

Legislation LA
Figure 1. Legislation is the backbone of a safe transport system. In the United States, common law doesn’t define who yields who and the laws vary from state to state.

Transport safety was the carrying theme of the congress. This is a problem especially in developing countries where traffic volumes rise exponentially but also in the United States where traffic deaths have increased during the past few years. Car-centric infrastructure is unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists, which is of course a global problem, but many of the experts in the USA are telling that the premises in their traffic system are unsafe. Exploiting new technologies and designing better infrastructure is making the transport system safer, but attitudes towards more vulnerable users of the transport system also need to change. Accidents between cars and pedestrians or bicyclists must not be normalized by accepting that they are something that just happens when the paths cross.

Is technology a solution to a problem or should we all make changes?

The Exhibition Hall of the congress showed the state-of-the-art technology used in the intelligent transport system. In the future, traffic and pedestrian surveillance is made by AI using machine vision. For example, unauthorized parking can be registered and ticketed automatically. Multiple technical sessions introduced systems that can forecast traffic and control traffic lights so that congestion can be reduced. Digitizing lanes and curbs enhance land use by making use of streets more dynamic. Lanes could be used for driving during rush hours, as a parking space during the day, and as a patio in the evening. Spaces assigned for loading goods to commercial premises could be used only the times they are needed.

Parking in the cities
Figure 2. There were multiple solutions for the surveillance of parking in the cities.

Automated Shuttles – State-of-the-Art

The paper I was presenting at the conference session, was a literature review of the pilot projects related to automated shuttle services. Today, urban mobility development is largely concentrated on public transport and new mobility services, such as micro-mobility or demand-responsive transport, and integrating the different services to enable effective travel chains. Electrification and automation are also changing private car use but generally, the focus is on public transport. This means that a significant deal of development activities in these areas are dealing with automated shuttles.

User acceptance is important for the implementation of the solution

Many of the pilot projects reviewed agree that generally, user acceptance for these solutions exists, although it differs a lot between the user segments. Surveys made usually show that passengers are feeling safe and secure traveling by automated shuttle and they have a positive attitude towards these solutions. However, it needs to be kept in mind that piloting of the automated shuttles is made mostly in a restricted environment with a safety operator either on board or online. When the actual traffic is added to the operational environment and the human driver is removed from the bus the user acceptance might change.

Business Models behind the solutions

To be able to commercialize the automated shuttle buses clear business models are needed. Currently, business models are not sufficiently taking into account different customer segments which means that all types of users are attempted to serve simultaneously. This is a limiting factor because different users have different needs and attitudes toward automated shuttles. Most of the pilots rely on subsidization which makes the financial feasibility questionable. At some point, a decision needs to be made on whether automated shuttles are considered services that are partly funded publicly or commercial services paid completely by the customer. More advanced business model development needs to be done and the view needs to be expanded from business models to business ecosystems. This allows examining the costs and benefits of automated shuttles to other actors in urban transport as well as to society and the environment.

The implementation in the Real World raises questions and concerns

The leap to the deployment of automated shuttles into real-life transport systems is still in the distant future and many of the major challenges are not resolved or even addressed. The Digital and physical infrastructure of the urban transport system needs major changes. Standardization needs to be accelerated and minimal requirements for infrastructure need to be defined to respond to the needs of automated driving and autonomous vehicles. Extreme weather conditions and unexpected behavior of human drivers seems to be the major challenge in autonomous driving. These same issues exist in the present transport system and overcoming them is not impossible, automation might even be the solution.

The further the future of automated driving is speculated the harder the issues seem to evolve. Can autonomous vehicles operate in the same environment as human drivers or should they be kept separate? Could professional drivers operate in the same environment as autonomous vehicles? Who takes responsibility if and when an accident happens?

The conference paper – Roine, M., Jääskeläinen, J., Ahonen, V. & Leviäkangas, P. 2022. Automated Urban Transport Systems – A Project-Oriented Review of the State-of-the-Art – will be published in the conference proceedings on October.

Valtteri Ahonen
Doctoral researcher

www.oulu.fi

The first Nysse line operated by a robot bus is coming – Tampere to launch regular robot bus operations this year

The first Nysse line operated by a “robobus” is to start in Tampere’s Hervanta neighbourhood later this year

Tampere will be the first Finnish city to launch robot busses in regular public transit this year. Although the minibuses are self-driving, there will be a human conductor on board during the initial phase of their rollout.

The south-central city is beginning Finland’s first training programme for robot bus drivers. The six-month course will be held at the Tampere Adult Education Centre (Takk).

Successful graduates of the course are to be employed by Roboride. The Tampere-based firm has previously tested self-driving vehicles and gathered experience in city districts such as Hiedanranta and Hervanta.

Robot cars travel independently and lack traditional vehicle control devices, but there will be a driver on board to ensure safety, at least at first. The vehicle has an emergency button, with which the driver can stop the vehicle manually if necessary. In addition, a game controller-type device is used, with which the driver can take control of the minibus.

Remote monitoring later

During the initial phase of operations, there will be a driver on board, but in the future, the aim is for drivers to handle the monitoring remotely. In addition to safety driver skills, students will be trained to drive a traditional minibus, which may be used to replace a robot vehicle in exceptional situations.

After a two-month trial period early this year, Tampere Regional Transport (Nysse) plans to start using robobuses in regular traffic before year’s end. The kilometre-long route connects the tram line’s Hervanta terminus with the Lintuhytti residential area.

The safety driver training is being carried out by Roboride and Takk in partnership between the Pirkanmaa TE (employment) office, the local ELY Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.

The training is intended primarily for unemployed and unemployed TE office clients. Sunday is the last day to apply for the course through a local TE office.

Article is originally published on YLE News webpage .

Image: (file photo from Hiedanranta in September 2020). Antti Eintola / Yle