How to improve the environmental performance of inland navigation

摘要

Inland navigation is known as a safe and environmentally friendly transport mode. Compared with maritime navigation and short sea shipping, it has to fulfill much stricter emission regulations. Inland navigation faces strong competition with road and rail transport, demanding superiority in environmental friendliness as competitive advantage. Therefore, inland navigation has to deal with the challenge of introducing highly efficient technologies for the improvement of its environmental performance being applicable to small spaces, in contrast to seagoing vessels where generally enough space is available.rnFocused on emissions to the air, the environmental performance of inland navigation and means for its improvement are discussed in the light of results of the EU project CREATING (www.creating.nu) and the Cleanest Ship project (www.cleanestship.eu).rnThe legislation with respect to exhaust emissions in waterborne and road transport is outlined briefly.rnDifferent emission reduction techniques and alternative fuels are discussed with respect to their emission reduction potential and applicability to inland navigation.rnThe environmental performance of inland navigation with respect to emissions to the air is compared with road transport and the achievable compliance with emission standards is discussed.rnThe application of advising tempomaat, low sulphur fuel equal to road standard EN 590, selective catalytic reduction and particulate matter filter is found to be the most suitable solution to improve the environmental performance of inland navigation. These systems are utilized in the demonstrator the Cleanest Ship, being briefly outlined in this paper.