Inland navigation is safe and environmentally friendly. On average, CO₂ emissions of an inland vessel are only 1/3 of the ones a truck emits per ton-kilometre (tkm), due to higher energy efficiency. However, SOX emissions are actually much higher than the ones resulting from road transport, even when related to tkm.

Benefits of waterway transport in a nutshell

• Cost-efficient
• Congestion-free and reliable
• Reduces emissions
• Saves on non-renewable energy
• Market conform intermodal solutions
• Energy efficient;
  5l of fuel equivalent enables the transport of 1 tonne of goods over
  

The Cleanest Ship Project

The Cleanest Ship Project shows how inland navigation can improve its environmental performance. Cleanest Ship is a demonstration project within the European research project.

This project is carried out on the motor tank vessel ‘Victoria’. The vesselis operating in the Port of Rotterdam and Antwerp areas. Fuel consumption and NOX emissions are directly measured; CO2 and SOX emissions are calculated from fuel consumption, whereas PM emissions are evaluated using the emission reduction potential estimated on the test stand. The latter is done because accurate measurement of PM emissions at service conditions is difficult.
The emission reduction results, including a comparison with road transport, are monitored and presented on a regular basis on this website.

Emission reduction techniques

The emission reduction techniques utilized are the Advising Tempomaat (ATM), low sulphur fuel, selective catalytic reduction and particulate matter filters.

• The Advising Tempomaat: a system enabling an economically optimised operation of a vessel. The system has been developed and supplied by Techno Fysica (NL).

  The core of the system is a computer programme advising the skipper on the most economical combination of route and speed, enabling the vessel to arrive on time with a most efficient use of fuel, leading to reduction of fuel consumption and emissions. The ATM, where the advised fuel settings are realised manually, is the successor of the Tempomaat which automatically adjusted the vessel speed, without giving advice.

• Low sulphur fuel: The m/v ‘Victoria’ uses low sulphur fuel equal to road standard diesel fuel (EN 590). Low sulphur fuel is a precondition for application of particulate matter filters and efficient reduction of PM and SOX emissions, which are directly related to the sulphur content of the fuel used. Low sulphur fuel is supplied by energy company BP.
• The Nauticlean S system: developed and built by Hug Engineering (CH), encompasses a PM (soot) filter and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst in the same reactor. The filter is equipped with a diesel full-flow regenerative burner.Selective catalytic reduction is a technique for efficient removal of NOX emissions by means of injecting a reducing agent into the exhaust gas. The Nauticlean S system uses ammonia to reduce nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide to nitrogen and water, which is injected as urea (40% solution).

Emission reduction expected

By using the Advising Tempomaat, fuel consumption (FC) may be reduced by up to 15 %. For this demonstration project, however, a moderate reduction is assumed. This is due to the small operational area of the vessel and frequent manoeuvring in harbours. The value for the PM filter also includes the SCR effect on PM reduction.

Map of the European waterways