Shipping is increasingly important for both the transportation of goods as well as of people. Roughly 80 percent of the kilometres covered by freight ships worldwide every year come from shipping. One of the largest container ships, the Emma Maersk, emits as much every year as a middle-sized coal-fired power plant. In addition to that 90 percent of these large ships are fuelled with heavy oil. This leads to very high CO2 and sulphur dioxide emissions and an urgent need to take action.

Austria’s leading centre for large engine research, the Large Engines Competence Center (LEC) at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), is the leading coordinator of this project. The LEC’s Europe-wide innovation and research project HyMethShip has been awarded a 9,2 million Euro fund by the European Union. The goal of the project is to increase efficiency and decrease emissions in the marine sector. Andreas Wimmer, CEO of the LEC, emphasizes: “The innovation potential and the extent to which the project surpasses the current state-of-the-art is outstanding. HyMethShip will optimize and implement technologies, which have previously never been used in shipping and have the potential to eliminate CO2 and sulphate emissions.” These statements were also strongly emphasized by the jury.

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