Promoting Innovation in the Inland Waterways Transport Sector

Project Information

Prominent

Grant agreement ID: 633929

DOI

10.3030/633929

Project closed

EC signature date 14 April 2015

Start date 1 May 2015

End date 30 April 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 6 572 616,25

EU contribution

€ 6 249 997,75

Coordinated by

STICHTING STC-GROUP
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Prominent (Promoting Innovation in the Inland Waterways Transport Sector)

Reporting period: 2016-11-01 to 2018-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

PROMINENT is a Research and Innovation Action aimed at advancing innovation in the Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) sector (topic MG.4.4-2014 call 2014). It is called “PROMINENT – Promoting Innovation in the Inland Waterways Transport Sector” and addresses the key needs for technological development, as well as the barriers to innovation and greening in the European inland navigation sector. PROMINENT thereby is fully in line with the objectives of the European action programme NAIADES-II. PROMINENT addresses all topics included in call MG.4.4-2014 and is geared towards reaching its full impacts during the project lifetime. PROMINENT is ultimately aimed at providing solutions which make inland navigation as competitive as road transport in terms of air pollutant emissions by 2020 and beyond. In parallel PROMINENT aims to further decrease the energy consumption and carbon footprint of IWT, an area where IWT has already a strong advantage compared to road transport.

PROMINENT will focus on:
• Massive transition towards efficient and clean vessels;
• Certification and monitoring of emission performance and development of innovative regimes;
• Harmonisation and modernisation of professional qualifications and the stimulation of the further integration of IWT
into sustainable transport chains.

PROMINENT will achieve the following targets:
- develop cost-effective solutions applicable to 70% of the fleet and reduce the implementation costs by 30%;
- involve all relevant stakeholders;
- actively address and remove implementation barriers by 2020.

The PROMINENT partners have found broad support among political and commercial decision makers in the field of inland navigation. Through its direct access to relevant industrial stakeholders and Member States the consortium has
obtained significant backup needed to perform the work.
The PROMINENT consortium consists of 17 partners from five different EU Member States.

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

PROMINENT started with the State-of-Play analysis, which resulted in:

- A list of Operational Profiles and Fleet Families;
- A list of Best Available Greening Technologies and Concepts;
- An analysis of Barriers and Facilitating Factors for Innovation Uptake

By focussing on these three elements, the basis was laid for the activities in the area of Advanced Concepts for Mass Introduction, which aimed at the following concepts:

- Emission after-treatment of diesel engines;
- Energy-efficient navigation.

The activities concerning "Advance Concepts for Mass Introduction" focussed on the preparation of the pilot deployment activities as well as a preliminary assessment of the costs and benefits related to the concepts. After testing of the standardised solutions in WP5, the costs and benefits were calculated according to the outcomes of the pilot execution. Since Certification, Monitoring and Enforcement are key issues of implementing alternative energy concepts, first the state-of-the-art regarding current emission legsilation for Inland Waterway Transport was analysed. As a second step, various aspects of certification (procedures), monitoring and enforcement were analysed according to their applicability in relation to massive introduction of alternative energy concepts.

Another important factor of a sustainable transport mode is the human factor. For this reason, PROMINENT developed e-learning modules concerning vessel stability, energy-efficient navigation and dangerous cargo. In relation to the current developments concerning modernisation and harmonisation of professional qualifications in inland navigation, PROMINENT analysed the comparison of the use of inland navigation ship-handling simulators to real-life situations. Besides an e-SRB and e-Logbook was developed in close cooperation with the Joint Research Centre and tested on board 10 inland vessels. In order to stimulate the use of IWT, a dedicated community of Practice with lesson materials for bachelor logistics students was developed and extensively tested with teachers and students.

Standardised solutions for LNG have been prepared for pilot testing, including the ex-ante cost-benefit analysis for the technologies applicable. The concepts of right- sizing/hybrid concepts have been investigated as well. An assessment of certification, monitoring and enforcement options and procedures has been conducted, thereby supporting the preparation of the pilot testing. These results have been discussed with the CESNI/PT in November 2016.
Various real-life pilots on board have been executed during the project: pilots in the field of energy-efficient navigation, diesel after-treatment, and LNG monitoring.
In order to facilitate the roll-out of the technologies and concepts developed in the framework of PROMINENT, the roll-out plan including supporting tools and advises regarding policy initiatives has been developed.

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)

The PROMINENT research and innovation action fully complies with the expected results listed in the HORIZON 2020 work programme and the NAIADES II Communication. The expected impacts will be achieved pursuing the ambitious PROMINENT objectives and work approach: developing solutions that are applicable to at least 70% of the European inland fleet and their operating areas and at the same time reducing implementation costs of innovative greening solutions by 30% through standardization and modularization. The complementary activities of the PROMINENT project provide an integrated approach for the uptake of alternative concepts and technologies by means of a plug-and-play system. Technologies and concepts are adopted for mass implementation, in combination with monitoring, certification and endorsement. The execution of real-life pilot demonstrations not only provides a solid base for further uptake of the technologies exploited, but provides inputs for the solutions for barriers discovered from an environmental, operational, financial and legal point of view. This paves the way for strong reductions of external cost of air pollutant emissions and climate change costs and internal costs of IWT such as have been calculated in the Impact Assessment study referred to in the SWD(2013)324 pointing towards an additional discounted economic value of 8.6 billion euro compared to the alternative baseline if strict air pollutant emission limits are applied for new and also existing engines (Innovative-Effectiveness option). The activities exploited in WP6 (Roll-Out) provide the industry, policy makers, and all other relevant actors with a set of tools to easy implementation of techniques and tools to support the IWT industry in becoming not only the most sustainable, but also the most efficient mode of transport in the European supply chain. PROMINENT further facilitates the modernization of professional qualifications and training standards, which not only provides the sector with more qualified staff, but on the other hand increases labor mobility at the same time. More skilled workforce ensures a better efficiency of the IWT sector, which eases the integration of IWT into the supply chain. Additionally, PROMINENT will establish a strong knowledge and expertise network involving the active participation of all relevant actors as project partners or external stakeholders - in support of these objectives and the implementation of innovation. This will ultimately contribute towards the policy objective of strengthening the position of IWT in the sustainable transport chain.

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