Evanthia Kostidi

The transition to a low-carbon future necessitates innovative approaches to renewable energy deployment, particularly in the marine environment, where abundant resources remain underutilized. This paper explores the potential of hybrid renewable energy systems and green hydrogen production to address the energy challenges faced by Very Small Islands (VSIs). These islands heavily rely on imported fossil fuels, making them vulnerable to global price fluctuations and contributing to economic instability and environmental degradation. Offshore floating platforms present a transformative opportunity by harnessing marine renewable resources, integrating wind, solar, and wave energy to maximize energy production while minimizing land use conflicts. Green hydrogen, produced through the electrolysis of seawater, powered by these renewable sources, offers a sustainable alternative for decarbonizing transportation, particularly in the maritime sector. The study aims to assess the feasibility of converting small conventional passenger vessels to hydrogen propulsion and evaluate the technical, economic, and environmental impacts of deploying offshore platforms for hydrogen production. By examining these aspects, this research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable energy solutions for island communities and provides actionable insights into implementing renewable hydrogen-based maritime transport.

While ammonia offers several benefits as an alternative fuel, its adoption poses significant technical and economic challenges, particularly with respect to onboard storage and handling. To facilitate the large-scale deployment of ammonia in marine applications, there is a critical need to develop a robust methodology for assessing the life cycle costs of ammonia storage systems on vessels, either new-build and retrofit installations. With a robust life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) methodology, the maritime industry can better evaluate the feasibility of onboard ammonia storage systems, paving the way for their large-scale adoption and supporting global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Given that ammonia is a relatively new marine fuel, this work addresses the current gap in knowledge by offering a structured approach to evaluating the costs across the entire life cycle of an onboard ammonia storage system, including design, construction, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life decommissioning. This methodology was developed with a high degree of flexibility to accommodate uncertainties in both technological alternatives and cost estimation. This work offers significant contributions to both academia and industry by establishing a replicable and adaptable LCCA framework for assessing storage solutions.

The transition to a low-carbon future necessitates innovative approaches to renewable energy deployment, particularly in the marine environment, where abundant resources remain underutilized. This paper explores the potential of hybrid renewable energy systems and green hydrogen production to address the energy challenges faced by Very Small Islands (VSIs). These islands heavily rely on imported fossil fuels, making them vulnerable to global price fluctuations and contributing to economic instability and environmental degradation. Offshore floating platforms present a transformative opportunity by harnessing marine renewable resources, integrating wind, solar, and wave energy to maximize energy production while minimizing land use conflicts. Green hydrogen, produced through electrolysis of sea water, powered by these renewable sources, offers a sustainable alternative for decarbonizing transportation, particularly in the maritime sector. The study aims to assess the feasibility of converting small conventional passenger vessel to hydrogen propulsion and evaluate the technical, economic, and environmental impacts of deploying offshore platform for hydrogen production. By examining these aspects, this research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable energy solutions for island communities and provides actionable insights into implementing renewable hydrogen-based maritime transport.

The maritime industry, a cornerstone of global trade, faces mounting pressure to decarbonize and align with international greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). This study investigates how project management frameworks and techno-economic analysis (TEA) can jointly address the technical, economic, and strategic challenges of retrofitting maritime vessels for alternative fuels. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining systematic literature synthesis, case study analysis, and theoretical modeling. Key findings highlight the pivotal role of project management in mitigating retrofitting risks, optimizing lifecycle costs, and aligning retrofitting projects with organizational objectives, including sustainability and regulatory compliance. The study also identifies best practices, such as leveraging interdisciplinary collaboration and smart energy management systems, to enhance retrofitting outcomes. By integrating TEA with project management, the research contributes actionable insights to advance the maritime industry’s energy transition and decarbonization efforts.

Ports are critical nodes in global trade and logistics, yet they are significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and local air pollution, presenting challenges for achieving sustainable development. This article explores the multifaceted efforts required to decarbonize ports, focusing on the integration of renewable energy, adoption of alternative fuels, investment in infrastructure modernization, efficiency improvement, and leveraging digital technologies. Drawing on case studies and a review of contemporary research, the paper identifies key strategies such as the implementation of shore-side power systems, predictive scheduling using artificial intelligence, and the development of port-specific microgrids. Despite technological advancements, barriers such as high capital costs, stakeholder misalignment, and fragmented policy frameworks hinder progress. The findings underscore the importance of international collaboration, regulatory alignment, and public-private partnerships to overcome these challenges. By synthesizing lessons from successful implementations worldwide, this paper provides actionable insights into decarbonizing ports while highlighting the environmental, economic, and social benefits of such transformations. Ultimately, this work argues for a systemic, collaborative approach to achieving sustainable maritime operations and advancing global decarbonization goals.

This work presents a comprehensive Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (S-CBA) conducted as part of a research project, studying biofuel production for the maritime and aviation sectors, from various types of non-food waste biomasses. The inclusion of social considerations complements and expands on the environmental and economic ones. The importance of social group criteria was determined through expert questionnaires, leading to the identification of social impacts groups and social criteria from stakeholders across participating countries. The results successfully identified and quantified social impacts, and align with those reported in similar cases in relevant literature. Social Cost-Benefits, monetarizing social factors, demonstrated several social benefits, including reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions. However, it also highlighted social costs, such as Economic Costs associated with the initial investment. The study revealed critical social hotspots within the impact categories, making significant strides in understanding the social impacts of biofuel production, providing valuable insights for decision-makers, and contributing to the broader goal of sustainable and socially responsible biofuel production.

This research investigates the potential of additive manufacturing (AM) to revolutionize the marine spare parts supply chain (SPSC). While AM has been widely explored in other industries, its application in the maritime sector remains limited. This study addresses this gap by comparing traditional and AM-integrated SPSC models using system dynamics simulation. By focusing on high- and low-value spare parts, this research highlights significant cost reductions and improved delivery times through strategic AM integration. Our findings demonstrate the potential of AM to enhance the efficiency and resilience of the maritime supply chain, particularly in remote environments.

Ammonia as a fuel has been known for several years, but only relatively recently has it attracted interest for study and use as a marine fuel. A forthcoming generation of sustainable, economically viable, and safe technologies for the large-scale onboard storage of ammonia as a marine fuel is being developed. This article presents a structured approach to carrying out Quality Function Deployment (QFD) for evaluating a project solution at the strategic level. The “House of Quality” (HoQ) method is utilised since it provides the means for inter-functional planning and communications among people with different problems and responsibilities. The project requirements are defined and lead to functional technical characteristics to satisfy these needs. The approach allows for the application of a weighting scheme to rank the perceived relative importance of the requirements, the difficulty involved in implementing the technologies, and the relationship between requirements and functional technical characteristics. QFD analysis prioritises safety compliance, technical specifications, emission control, and operational efficiency. The added value of this work is beyond the life of a project since it may provide assistance to the stakeholders in assessing the applicability of ammonia fuel solutions given the resources available to them. This feature will enable the justification of further investment into specific technologies based on their potential impact.