RETROFIT55 aims to develop decarbonization solutions and green technologies which can be used by ship-owners to reduce fuel consumption and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Focus shall be to achieve targets of the ZEWT partnership which is to develop and demonstrate solutions to be able to reduce the fuel consumption of waterborne transport by at least 55% before 2030 compared to 2008. Among the different solutions for the achievements of the targets, the consortium will focus on solutions to improve the ship efficiency, such as Air Lubrication Systems, Smart Energy Management, holistic Hydrodynamic and Operational optimization, as well as solutions to exploit renewables or zero- and low-emission energy sources, such as Wind Assisted Propulsion, Fuel Cells and hybridization of the propulsion system.

No single GHG emission reduction solution can achieve the targeted fuel consumption reduction of 55% by 2030, so a combination of various systems is necessary.

A Decision Support System (DSS) will be developed within the project to leverage AI web-based tools that will provide a synthesis of the different technologies accounting for safety aspects, cost- effectiveness and life-cycle costs, including the decommissioning phase.

The innovations to be developed by this project to reduce GHG emissions, cover the exploitation of renewable energies, design optimization, solutions to reduce friction losses, increased ship electrification and the improved management of the operational phase and on-board systems. Most importantly, all these aspects are dealt with in an integrated way, i.e. taking account of the impact each solution has on other subsystems.

This project aims to implement the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Zero Emission Waterborne Transport’ (ZEWT).