LCA of Eco Island Ferry
The purpose of the project was to investigate significant improvements to operational costs and environmental impacts for a new island ferry travelling between Hov and the Tunø Island in Denmark.
The client
Eco Island Ferry Consortium – Denmark
Website
Our role
The project as a whole was executed by a diverse group of stakeholder and experts. The LCA-study however was performed by 2.-0 LCA Consultants. Project completed April 2013.
Comparative LCA of island ferry
Following a kick-off meeting for the EU project MARKIS in 2010 with the title “Light Weight Marine structures”, an industrial group in North Jutland, Denmark and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden started discussing displacement ferries with a reduced environmental footprint. This led to the creation of a Swedish-Danish consortium with the objective of starting construction of this type of ferry in the Swedish and Danish region. The project was named “Øko-Ø-færge” (Eco Island Ferry) and a project group was formed consisting of naval architects from Sweden and Denmark, university and shipyard representatives as well as specialists from research institutes. A project plan was prepared, which included a full fire safety assessment according to SOLAS chapter II-2 Regulation 17 along with a life cycle costing (LCC) and a life cycle assessment (LCA) for the new ecological and economical island ferry. A preliminary study (Amen and Evegren 2012) was carried out by the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden that reviewed national, European and international regulations, along with studies of the potential market and financing for lightweight island ferries in the region. The project work is meant to illustrate the feasibility of a more ecological and economical alternative for island ferries. The project sets out to replace the old Tun Island Ferry (Tunøfærgen), which travels between Hov and the Tunø Island in Denmark. One of the requirements was that the new ship maintains the same capacity as the Tun Island Ferry, which holds 200 passengers and six cars (or four cars and a truck). By using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite as an alternative to steel, a weight reduction of up to 71% can be achieved, which could provide significant improvements to operational costs and environmental impacts. The project resulted in a report which included a comparative LCA of island ferry with carbon fibre composite based and steel based structures.