Green Corridor in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea

In collaboration with major ports in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea, namely: Gdynia, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Tallinn and Roenne, the Centre leads the project. The vision of the consortium is to establish green corridors, defined as a corridor where ships sail on a regular basis between ports and carbon-neutral fuels are available at the required scale for bunkering.

A staggered approach was taken, with Phase 1 of the project defined as identifying and shortlisting routes, vessel segments and fuels. The maritime activity in the Baltic Sea region can be closely analyzed, by means of trade routes and emission contributions. There are about 2000 ships in the Baltic marine area at any given moment, with about 3500–5500 ships navigating through the Baltic Sea per month.

The primary fuel types for first mover shipping segments that were considered are: Bio-oils, Methane, Hydrogen, Methanol and Ammonia. These were assessed via their technical readiness in terms of bunkering infrastructure and their use on vessels, their commercial readiness via the foreseen availability within the region and the relative cost levels. Additionally, the social readiness by regulatory barriers, requirements on emission and existing infrastructure for the analyzed fuels plays a vital role. During the first phase, the aim is to identify and establish the foundation for the first Green Corridors between participating ports, first mover vessel segments, operators, and their bunkering needs in combination with a coherent selection of an alternative fuel supply option.

Subsequently in Phase 2, the technical, regulatory and commercial feasibility of these shortlisted routes will be analyzed, to develop business models and contextualize the investment potential across the value chain. Finally, in Phase 3, the implementation of selected corridors in several stages will been investigated. A roadmap and blueprint to establishing green corridors will be drafted in order to establish which procedures and port regs. are needed to create zero emission trading routes.

Overall, the project aims to establish infrastructure and value chains for alternative fuels at each participating port by mid-decade, so that calling vessels can bunker these fuels. Moreover, the full shipping supply chain needs to be operationalized with vessels sailing on alternative fuels between each participating port by mid-decade, thereby realizing the Green Corridors. Therefore, development of these Green Corridor routes to full commercial scale needs to be accelerated to be implemented by 2030.