Cons.A.R. - Italian Shipowner's Research Consortium

Last 30th July the 3rd call of the EU 7th Framework Programme relative to the Transport sector (including Aeronautics) was published.
The call will expire the next 14th January 2010. The available budget for the call is € 93.790.000.
The program cover the following principal activities:
- Greening of surface transport;
- Sustainable urban mobility;
- Improvement of safety;
- Strengthening of competitiveness.

For the shipping sector, the main themes the next call focuses on are the following:
- Greening of transport, products and operations;
- Abatement of air emissions form shipping;
- Energy efficiency of ships;
- Inter-modal exchange;
- Enhancement of the safety in transport sector;
- Optimization of management and sources.


Last 7th September a meeting among Cons.A.R. and its associated shipping companies was held in Rome. The scope of the meeting was to present the call, to focus the topics of main interest and to define strategies and potential research proposals.
There was a remarkable adhesion of the shipping companies, in particular for what concerns the themes relevant to the environmental aspect (carbon footprint, emission reduction) and the development of an European network of excellence for what regards the exchange and the management of information concerning the world of the shipping.
Cons.A.R.'s associates agreed to join eventual project proposals, providing means and infrastructures for the experimentation.

After this meeting, Cons.A.R. is focused to the following topics:

- PROPOSALS PROMOTION AS COORDINATOR:

Text of the call
The different modes of transport have different carbon footprints. Road transport is often seen as the most environment unfriendly mode of transport. Except for the direct emissions stemming from the vehicle or the vessel, the carbon footprint is also dependent on the use made of them, i.e. the logistic efficiency in the transport and distribution system itself. The transport and distribution industry have recognised the green factor as a commercial factor and have deployed individual initiatives. Much of the current initiatives to reduce emissions, and especially the trading mechanisms require accurate measurement of the amount of emission of economic activities. In case this involves transportation and related activities, part of which take place outside Europe, such measurement is severely hampered by the difficulty to monitor transport and logistics chains worldwide.

The aim of this topic is to add on environment related information to the regular data flow on operational supply chain management systems as being developed within the individual transport modes but also integrated intermodal systems or concepts, such as e-freight, port community systems, SICIS, etc.
The activities will address the definition of:
- information needs for emissions
- the gathering of emissions' information along the supply chain
- environmental parameters
- their measurement methods
- their integration into the information systems/platforms for logistic chain management The outcome of this project will be a measurement framework on emissions (particular CO2) in the context of logistics chains and to demonstrate that accurate measurements of these emissions can contribute to a much more accurate estimate of the carbon footprint of cargo transported into Europe.

State of the art
Cons.A.R. activated a research of potential partners belonging to the three different transport modes (rail, road, maritime). The possibility to contact us to participate to the preparation of the proposal about this topic is still open. Cons.A.R. is actually working to better define the proposal's contents.

Text of the call
The objective of the research is to develop and validate combined solutions for costeffective reduction of emissions (CO2, NOx, SOx, PM2.5) of all type of ships (including leisure vessels) at sea, in coastal areas and in ports. Activities will include:
- Further development of smoke-free and emission reduction after treatment technologies that enable higher fuel efficiency compared to existing after treatment systems.
- Elaboration and validation of advanced cost-effective scenarios and operations to reduce emissions of existing vessels by technology combinations e.g. reduction of speed limit, seawater scrubbing, etc.
- Elaboration and validation of advanced cost-effective scenarios to reduce emissions during port operations, including mooring.

State of the art
Cons.A.R. is acting as coordinator for this proposal's preparation. The main objective is to develop a proposal covering all the call's requests and which will contemplate a testing phase onboard a certain number of ships of different types.
Cons.A.R. is actually looking for potential partners who have available advanced studies, experimental technologies and tools for the reduction of ship's emissions which could be applied in a real scenario.

If anyone would be interested in join the proposals described above with its own organization, can compile the form or send a request to Cons.A.R. through the following addresses:

ADDRESS
CONS.A.R. - Consorzio Armatori per la Ricerca - Shipowners Research Consortium
Via Duca Lecco de Guevara, 17
80059 - Torre del Greco (NAPLES) - ITALY

TELEPHONE
+39 081 849 26 29

E-MAIL
consar@consar.net
g.balzano@consar.net
r.gargiulo@consar.net

- CONSAR INTEREST IN PARTICIPATING TO THE FOLLOWING TOPICS AS PARTNER:
SST.2010.1.1-4 Advanced after treatment solutions
SST.2010.2.1-2 Efficient Interfaces
SST.2010.4.1-1 Safety and Security by design in transport stations and terminals
SST.2010.5.1-1 Through life asset management
SST.2010.5.2-4 Continental shipping