Environmental Assessment of Alternative Ship Designs to Improve European Short Sea Shipping Efficiency: CREATE3S

摘要

The CREATE3S project aims to improve the efficiency of European Short Sea Shipping through innovative design and production techniques. As part of this project, the authors considered the environmental efficiency of the proposed new design over one if its designated routes, against an existing ship currently being operated over the same route. The entire logistic system port to port was considered when conducting the analysis. The results indicate that whilst cost and time savings may be made by investing in a larger ship able to carry a larger cargo, and faster, this is not necessarily true for the environmental impact of the system. Production efficiencies gained from the use of the advanced double hull concept for main hull structure resulted in increased steelweight, impacting upon the environmental impact from operation as well as from manufacture and end of life disposal. This paper examines the environmental conclusions reached by this screening study and the reasons for them, as well as suggesting areas for improvement when designing a short sea container ship to be not just economically, but also environmentally, efficient. These recommendations can be extrapolated out to consider the effects on all cargo (or people) transported by sea, over any distance.