Current projects

Current Projects

Α Hybrid Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle System Opening New Horizons in Conducting Military Operations in the Marine Environment - PASITHEA

2023 - 2027

EDF-2022-LS-RA-SMERO-NT

The main idea for this project is to develop well known UAV’s and UUV’s Technologies into a combined technology for a Hybrid Unmanned Vehicle, which can fly, hover in the air and sail under the water and which has the ability to repeat air water transmedia motions. The HAUV will be able to be launched, operated and controlled by land, sea, air platforms/units.

BALANCE TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING GMBH.
SIGNALGENERIX LIMITED.
A.S. PROTE MARITIME LTD.
MARESCO LTD.
BEIA CONSULT INTERNATIONAL SRL.
INOV INSTITUTO DE ENGENHARIA DE SISTEMAS E COMPU.
ACADEMIA FORTELOR AERIENE HENRI COANDA.
FUNDACION ANDALUZA PARA EL DESARROLLO AEROESP.

Safe and Efficient Marine Transportation of Liquid Hydrogen - LH2CRAFT

June 2023-May 2027

HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022-02-06

The overall goal of LH2CRAFT is to develop next generation, sustainable, commercially attractive, and safe long-term storage and long-distance transportation of Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) for commercial vessels (or even as fuel in certain applications). It aims at developing an innovative containment system of membrane-type for high-capacity storage (e.g., 200,000 m3) at a temperature of -253 deg C and demonstrating and validating it on a 10 ton (180 m3) prototype. It foresees the analysis of alternative conceptual designs with safety and risk assessment initiated at an early stage of the design process of the cargo containment system (CCS) exceeding currently demonstrated sizes. The design will allow LH2 storage to large dimensions, similar to those of existing LNG carriers. Special characteristics (storage tank, handling, distribution, safety, and monitoring subsystems (HDMSS) of the concepts that support up- or down-scaling will be detailed in order to prove the modularity and scalability of the proposed solution. The CCS will achieve AiP and general approval by a major classification society (three IACS members are participating). Demonstration will be done via the detailed design, construction, and testing of the reduced size prototype. LH2CRAFT will also develop a preliminary integrated ship design and carry out the corresponding cost estimation, achieving reduced boil-off rates of 0.5 % per day. A life cycle model will provide a significant tool enabling comparison between different new design or retrofit strategies while the LCA of the large carrier will evaluate the environmental impact from cradle to grave identifying also activities related to sustainability and recyclability and determining the environmental benefits. Two societal objectives will be served: society’s needs and EU’s strong global maritime leadership for its innovation-driven industry providing highly skilled jobs, efficient technological solutions, and international regulatory standards.

HYDRUS
AMERICAN MPIRO OF SIPING HELLENIC MONOPROSOPI ETAIREIA PERIORISMENIS EVTHINIS, AMERICAN BUREAU OF SHIPPING (ABS).
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN (TUD).
GABADI, S.L. (GBD).
PANEPISTIMIO PATRON (UPAT).
FOUNDATION WEGEMT - A EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITIES IN MARINE TECHNOLOGY AND RELATED SCIENCES (WEG).
RINA SERVICES SPA (RINA).
BUREAU VERITAS MARINE & OFFSHORE REGISTRE INTERNATIONAL DE CLASSIFICATION DE NAVIRES ET DE PLATEFORMES OFFSHORE (BV).
EASN TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION SERVICES BVBA (EASN).
CEGELEC NDT-PSC (ACT).

https://lh2craft.eu/

Digital Ship Structural Health Monitoring - dTHOR

December 2022-November 2025

EDF-2021-NAVAL-R-SSHM

The dTHOR project will develop next generation predictive Ship Structural Health Monitoring (SSHM) systems. These systems will be based on innovative utilisation of large amounts of load and response measurements from robust and advanced sensor systems, a digital framework complying with recognised open standards for data exchange, and hybrid analysis and modelling (HAM) which combines physics-based and data-driven models. These tools will be applied to achieve interoperable and evolving models facilitating a game change for SSHM. By delivering the above-mentioned predictive capabilities, the dTHOR project will enable:

A holistic approach to complete lifecycle management from design to decommissioning.
Effective transition from traditional time-based to condition-based maintenance.
Increased operational availability and increased levels of safety.
Continuous optimisation of operational performance in peace time and war time/crisis situations.
Game-changing speed of knowledge transfer between Research, Innovation, Design and Operations (the digital RIDO-concept).

There are 35 partners involved in dTHOR, and some of them are: SINTEF AS, Light Structures AS, SEA Europe, NAVAL GROUP, SAFRAN DATA SYSTEMS, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems GmbH, ISD SA, CERTH, INTRACOM DEFENSE SA, UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS, CETENA SpA, POLITECNICO DI MILANO, MARIN, DAMEN SCHELDE NAVAL SHIPBUILDING BV, TU Delft, Saab Kockums AB, NAVANTIA.

Safe and efficient storage of ammonia within ships – NH3CRAFT

June 2022-May 2025

HORIZON-CL5-2021-D5-01-07

NH3CRAFT aims at fully designing, engineering, developing and demonstrating a next generation sustainable, commercially attractive and safe technology for high-quantity on-board storage of NH3 as marine fuel. Two innovative modular and scalable steel and composite storage tank configurations for 1,000 m3 liquid NH3 at 10 bar and the corresponding auxiliary systems will be installed on a 31,000 Deadweight Tonnage (DWT) multi-purpose vessel. Additionally, five different types of vessels and corresponding fuel-storage tank concept adaptations will be studied and documented: a bulk carrier, a tanker and a container ocean going vessels, a typical RoPax ferry, and a small Inland Waterways Transportation passenger vessel. An innovative digital platform will integrate all core simulations and models through digital interfaces and will develop an engineering system matrix and specifications for the fuel storage, supply, and piping, monitoring and venting subsystems. Safety and risk assessment for all vessels will lead to the development of safety guidelines and classification rules. NH3CRAFT will showcase the entire NH3 supply chain in order to increase confidence in its use and promote its uptake. LCA and techno-economic evaluation will prove the sustainability and will support further exploitation and commercialization of the innovative solutions.

HYDRUS
RINA
AMERICAN BUREAU OF SHIPPING
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN
CONNOVA DEUTSCHLAND GMBH
EKME
COLUMBIA SHIPMANAGEMENT LTD
FOUNDATION WEGEMT
ENISOLV LTD
TWI LIMITED
UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE

Operator-Centered Enhancement of Awareness in Navigation – OCEAN

October 2022-September 2025

HORIZON-CL5-2022-D6-01-08

The OCEAN project approach is to contribute to the mitigation of navigational accidents by supporting the navigators to do an even better job than they do presently. Such support does not only relate to an ‘on-the-spot’ enhancement of navigational awareness – including the presence of marine mammals and floating containers – or an improved performance of evasive manoeuvring and other mitigating actions. The project will go both deeper and wider, to identify and suggest amendments or improvements in the most pertinent factors that may contribute to events becoming accidents: training, technical, human or organisational factors, operational constraints, processes and procedures, commercial pressures or structural issues like shortcomings in rules and regulations. From an implementation perspective, the OCEAN project will develop new design methods and operational processes, as well as integrating existing technologies to provide novel and improved functionalities. A key convergence point is the overall navigation situation assessment made by the operator, and the project aims at providing an integrated and designed-for-the-purpose presentation of near-field threats and navigational hinderances. The project outputs will include an Evasive Manoeuvring Agent, intended to work in tandem with existing ship systems, continuously assessing navigational safety with respect to grounding or collision with other ships, fixed structures or other threats, and the visualization of advanced manoeuvring prediction. OCEAN will suggest the creation of a European Navigational Hazard infrastructure to collect, process and distribute data relating to the presence of marine mammals and floating containers. Further innovations comprise input to upcoming and revised international standards for maritime communications and practical methods to design maritime instruments and devices, all of which will be demonstrated in consolidated scenarios.

HOGSKULEN PA VESTLANDET
KYSTVERKET
THE NAUTICAL INSTITUTE
CENTRE INTERNACIONAL DE METODES NUMERICS EN ENGINYERIA
TELEDYNE RESON A/S
UNIVERSIDADE DOS ACORES
KONGSBERG MARITIME AS
ONGSBERG SEATEX AS
LLOYD'S REGISTER
UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
Irish Ferries Limited
Irish Whale and Dolphin Group

Design Of Twin-Hull Electrically Driven Passenger Ferries (ELCAT)

ELCAT is a 30 months national project starting in spring 2020 and has a budget of about 1.0 million Euros.

The main objective of this proposal is the design of small twin hull passenger vessels (catamarans) based on electrical power for their propulsion in order to respond to environmental pollution issues caused by vessels (CO2 emissions). There will be two alternative designs: one with purely electric propulsion systems charged by means of a shore connection for short voyages and a hybrid design for longer voyages, which – apart from the shore connection - will carry two diesel generators to re-charge her batteries. In this latter case, the generators operation will be suspended while the vessel is near or in the port area. Solar panels will be installed in both cases.

Detailed structural and hydrodynamic optimization will be carried out in order to minimize the lightship weight and propulsion power respectively, aiming to reducing the required batteries capacity, weight and cost as well as (in case of the hybrid propulsion) the fuel consumption and the CO2 emissions.

The know-how which will be developed could be easily applied to other types of small twin-hull vessels, such as harbour workboats (anti-pollution, garbage collection, crew-supply vessels, etc.) or pleasure boats operating at short ranges and environmentally.

Development of multifunctional fiber reinforced composites with nano-modified matrix phase towards wind turbine applications (AIOLOS)

AIOLOS is an innovative 30 month project starting in October 2021 and aiming at the development of a new class of hybrid nanocomposite materials with enhanced mechanical strength, durability and SHM during operation capabilities. These hybrid composites will be composed of glass fiber reinforced epoxy matrix further reinforced with carbon based nanostructures and will be manufactured using an innovative lamination sequence by a combination of multiple manufacturing methods. The proposed materials and manufacturing methods of AIOLOS aim at wind turbine applications, wings and components of wind turbines for terrestrial or marine areas, and will constitute alternative solutions with increased reliability and enhanced strength compared to the existing conventional composite materials.

Co‐financed by the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH – CREATE - INNOVATE (project code:Τ2EDK-02971).

The AIOLOS consortium comprises of the following participants: