Infancia

In determining overall environmental impact of this hydrogen marine transport system, or indeed any transport system, a range of issues must be considered in addition to the obvious ones associated with producing and consuming the fuel. Many of these are outside the scope of this thesis but a few will be touched upon here.

The passage of any vessel has potential consequences for the marine environment. High-speed ships in particular tend to produce a wash that generates waves of long period containing enough energy to cause significant coastal erosion and damage marine ecosystems as indicated in the research by Parnell and Kofoed-Hansen (2001). There may also be concerns about noise pollu- tion and the safety of other craft. Legislation is therefore likely to limit the speed of the FAC when entering and leaving port. In practice, this will not significantly impact on passage times and transport efficiency since the vessel will spend the majority of its time remote from the coast. It is also the case that being of relatively modest size and with such a small immersed area when at speed on its foils, the waves generated by the passage of the FAC may be less intense97 _{than those} from slower, but larger, vessels.

Fast transit times can also present a unique marine ecosystem environmental concern. Histori- cally, small aquatic life forms would be contained in their local environment as sea temperature differences would limit their range and the passage time of conventional ships on which they might be transported (as unwelcome passengers!) too long for them to survive the journey. The FAC may achieve such fast passage times that otherwise short lived bacteria or small aquatic life forms may survive and be transferred from one hospitable habitat to another across previously unsustainable distances. A prime example of this is the introduction of Chinese Mitten crab into San Francisco bay aboard vessels travelling considerably slower than the 64 knots envisaged for the FAC as indicated in the research by Rudrick et al. (2003). Fortunately, techniques have been developed to avoid such transferral and it is not therefore anticipated that this will prove an inhibitor to development of faster ships.

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are now required in many parts of the world for each new large infrastructure project such as the fuel plant and container terminals that will service the FAC. The scope of an EIA covers a comprehensive range of impacts on the local environment as is indicated in a local UK example (Borough of Poole and Poole Harbour Commissioners (2004). The potential for the proposed new plant to form part of a larger hydrogen infrastructure and service a market beyond the immediate port operations will undoubtedly be considered a positive factor. Even if the development were to be completed before a mature market for hydrogen has developed the potential to displace hydrocarbon fuels in port vehicles and those forming the onwards transport fleet (potentially either road or rail) would have immediate benefits, and act as a technology demonstrator.

4.6

Summary

A high-speed hydrogen fuelled marine container system has been presented in this Chapter on three target long-haul ocean routes. Characteristics of the transport chain components, such as the 64 knot 600 TEU foil-assisted catamaran containership and the hydrogen marine fuel termi- nals, have been presented. Resistance characteristics, taking into consideration the draught reduction with increasing speed due to dynamic foil lift, has been estimated at approximately 4,200 kN. The four waterjet propulsion units provide an overall propulsive coefficient of 73.37% leading to a required installed power of 188,361.1 kW to sustain this high service speed. A description of both the ship and its novel LH2 fuel system and the combined container terminal and fuel plant have also been provided. The internal flow of the LH2 fuel within the transport chain, based on the fuel consumption of the high-speed ship components has been established with approximate values between 210,000 and 220,000 tonnes of LH2 annually. The production capacity of the marine fuel terminals have been sized to feed this consumption thus requiring steam methane reformation plants with an average natural gas input of 2,200 M.Btu/hr and hydrogen liquefaction plants with an average capacity of 12.5 tonnes/hr. Additionally, an eco- nomic evaluation of this type of transport chain has been performed on each target route. These results indicate that required transport rates for break-even operation per standard TEU container size are only 1.3 to 1.9 times higher than the current market rates. The identified rates for zero net present value operation are somewhat higher with ratios of 1.6 to 2.4 compared to current market rates. More importantly however, the identified transport rates by mass compare favoura- bly with aviation transport as indicated in Figure 4.20. With container delivery door-to-door times comparable to aviation transport, this type of high-speed marine transport chain may compete favourably with this type of transport.