How Baltic shipping will cope with climate and crises

RoRo and RoPax vessels are a central part of the transportation system in the Baltic Sea. They transport passengers, vehicles, and cargo year-round and play an important role in trade, regional development, and emergency preparedness. At the same time, the maritime industry faces extensive requirements to reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency.

The NORDAN research project is now getting underway. Researchers at RISE and Gotland Tech Development will investigate what the next generation of RoPax vessels in Swedish and Nordic waters could look like. With support from the Swedish Energy Agency, they will have the opportunity to test solutions and explore the design space for new concepts.

The hull, the propeller, and the wind

“We are looking at the vessel’s most important components: the hull design, propulsion technology, new fuels and energy carriers,” says Sofia Werner, a naval architect and researcher in marine hydrodynamics at RISE.

By combining wind propulsion with new propulsion technology, the researchers hope to develop concepts that dramatically reduce the energy consumption of a RoPax vessel. Sweden is a world leader in wind propulsion for large vessels, and RISE is one of the organizations that shipping companies around the world turn to for the comparison and verification of different technologies.

Tests in a 260-meter-long towing tank in Gothenburg

To verify the concepts, they will be tested at RISE SSPA Maritime Center test facility in Gothenburg. In the 260-meter-long towing tank, researchers can evaluate how different hull designs, rudders, and propulsion systems perform in practice. The results will be compared with experience from thousands of previous ship models, providing an important basis for the development of future Baltic Sea vessels.

Climate and preparedness in the same vessel

What distinguishes NORDAN from previous climate projects is that it also accounts for the security situation in the Baltic Sea. A vessel concept should not only be climate-smart but also be able to help supply society in a crisis—a so-called dual-use solution.

“In the past, we have primarily focused on climate performance; now, the choice of fuel and energy carriers will also be a matter of resilience,” says Sofia Werner.

“We don’t work in silos”

In NORDAN, Gotlandsbolaget is the needs owner and contributes experience from actually operating ferry services across the Baltic Sea, while RISE is responsible for the research, calculations, and testing.

“We want to give ourselves room to think ambitiously and truly explore the design space for new concepts, where we can combine a low climate footprint with an emergency-preparedness function in RoPax shipping in Swedish waters,” says Mikael Razola, head of Gotland Tech Development.

He describes the collaboration with RISE as close throughout the process, rather than divided between research and the shipping company.

“We don’t work in silos; we work in close collaboration,” he says. In addition to the vessel concept itself, Razola also sees value in the broader collaboration:

“NORDAN gives us the opportunity to expand our network and explore areas that are a little further into the future. It is also very exciting to work with RISE, which is among the world’s leading organizations in this field,” he says.

Within three years, the project is expected to have produced a proposal for a vessel concept with calculated climate performance. It should be usable as a source of knowledge and a starting point for concrete vessel orders—not only by the project partners but by everyone in the maritime industry. The work officially began on September 1.

Fact box: RoPax vessels

Vessels that carry both passengers and rolling cargo—trucks, trailers, cars, and palletized goods. The cargo is driven on and off the vessel via ramps rather than lifted by crane, enabling fast loading. The ferries operating in the Gotland service are RoPax vessels.