Retrofitting of fishing fleets with low payback time and easy to deploy solutions for footprint and GHG emissions reduction

Project Information

REFEST

Grant agreement ID: 101157663

DOI

10.3030/101157663

EC signature date 15 May 2024

Start date 1 May 2024

End date 30 April 2027

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 5 064 937,50

EU contribution

€ 3 999 185,26

Coordinated by

KLAIPEDOS UNIVERSITETAS
Lithuania

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REFEST (Retrofitting of fishing fleets with low payback time and easy to deploy solutions for footprint and GHG emissions reduction)

Reporting period: 2024-05-01 to 2025-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The European Green Deal sets out an objective of resource efficiency, reaching zero emissions by 2050 and protecting, conserving and enhancing the EU’s natural capital, with an intermediate target of a 50 to 55% reduction of emissions by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. In the fishing sector, this translates to a reduction of 30% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. On 21 February 2023, the European Commission published a 'fisheries and oceans' package, which includes an action plan on decarbonising EU fisheries. The plan aims to increase energy efficiency in the short to medium term, while making a gradual switch from fossil fuels to renewable & low-carbon energy sources in order to reduce fossil fuel intensity (in liters per kilogram of landed product) by at least 15% from 2019 to 2030.
Project REFEST aims to achieve TRL6 – procedures and technologies to secure the reduction of fuel consumption and GHG emissions up to 40% reduction compared to the original design. The solutions proposed will be designed to ready to deploy in a broad range of small fishing vessels and they are characterized by a low CAPEX and OPEX requirements to significantly reduce the payback time (to 5-6 years).
The main innovations are summarized as follow:
• Innovative design by the use bulbs and spray rails that allow to improve hull hydrodynamics.
• Recyclable acrylic resins reinforced with carbon/glass fibres for manufacture of hull appendages and use thermoplastic composites to produce battery housing.
• Integration of air lubrication systems for small vessels.
• Propulsion systems based on RIM drive solutions and its hybridization with current diesel engines.
• Integration of multi-functional optical fibre sensors for fishing ships monitoring.
• Cloud-based Eco-driving software with AI will be integrated as well as a class 1 Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) based on the RIM-drive propulsion.
• Safe, cost efficient and light Li Ion battery system for long cycle life in cold operation environments with a high percentage of reusable and recyclable parts.
• EMS and PMS for efficient energy management in the vessel.
• Low-weight and flexible photovoltaic panels, including walkable version to increase the available surface for FPV installation.
• Three retrofit demo traditional fishing ships in North Sea (Denmark & Norway) and Baltic Sea (Lithuania).
Additionally, REFEST aims to ensure that presented solutions and technologies are suitable, acceptable, and economically viable for the end-users by including fishing communities, researchers, etc. but also, they have not a negative effect over the north and Baltic Sea environment by application of analytical and modelling methods for impact assessment on marine environment and biodiversity.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first half of the project the following activities are performed, and the main results are achieved:
- The technical, regulatory, and operational requirements for solutions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from small fishing vessels under real operating conditions and the range of fishing vessel types operating in the Baltic Sea and North Sea regions are defined.
- Existing fishing vessels hulls are modelled, and experimental tests and simulations have been performed adding to the existing vessel design hull appendage configurations achieving up to 35% reduction in hydrodynamic resistance.
- The feasibility of different composites material to be used in the hull appendages has been tested and evaluated. The reduction in weight of 17% vs GFRP, and 44% vs Aluminium is achieved maintaining similar mechanical properties.
- A novel integrated sensor design with composite and silicone walls has been built and the preliminary experiments have shown a clear response of the sensor to changes in water pressure, validating the proposal.
- A modular electrical architecture centred around a 48 VDC main distribution bus was defined as the baseline solution. This configuration was selected due to its suitability for small-vessel retrofits, favourable safety characteristics, and compatibility with commercially available ESS and converter technologies.
- A hierarchical PMS structure was defined to separate supervisory decision-making from operational mode management and real-time protection functions. The EMS logic was developed.
- Battery cell parameters and preliminary structure of the battery modules were analyzed and LFP cylindrical cells FC46120P as the most suitable from the weight characteristics including considerations for cold weather operations. Dis-/charge behavior at different C-rates, Life-Cycle tests, Storage tests and Overcharge tests were performed to ensure the cells fit the necessary selection parameters. BMS requirements were specified, BMS system, the main contactor, fuse, pre-charge contactor and load resistor were selected, and an electrical Model was built. The mechanical design was done, ensuring the mechanical requirements like shock/vibration stability, the required safety level and the entire thermal design using materials with suitable thermal conductivity. Fire-retardant carbon-fibre reinforced polyamide composites for the manufacture of a lightweight, recyclable battery box was developed and validated.
- Low-weight and flexible photovoltaic panels based on silicon cells and flexible connector developed. Tests for contactless energy collection performed with efficiency measured at 95%. Water ingress tests have been successfully performed.
- A prototype of a mobile application for Eco driving mode is developed supported by Human-Machine Interface.
- 25 kW RIM Drive Engine is in development stage with the target delivery for the prototype units is planned for end of Q2 2026.
- Air lubrication technology system components are selected, a hull model in scale of 1:1.5 (5m) is manufactured and equipped with the custom design components of air lubrication system for further tests.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

To successfully meet the current challenges, retrofitting solutions must be based on the following points: i) Methods and tools for simulating the working of various configurations of ship regarding energy usage and emissions including alternative energy sources, alternative hull design, electric network reconfiguration, electrical power management etc. under operational conditions at sea, during port approach/leaving and during maneuvering, ii) Methods and tools for “reverse engineering” enabling to build product models suitable for the retrofitting process, iii) Design-for-retrofitting methodology based on standardisation and modularisation principles.