The marine industry faces the double challenge of rising fuel costs and tightening emissions standards, including carbon emissions. The GLEAMS project is developing technology with which marine vessels can achieve the very highest standards of sulphur and Nox emissions, slash their carbon emissions, and reduce costs simultaneously. It does this by allowing vessels to burn a widely available but under-used fuel, glycerol, in conventional marine diesel engines, requiring only modest additional equipment that can be easily retro-fitted.
Glycerol is produced as a by-product of biofuel production. As biofuel capacity increases, the amount of glycerol produced also increases. The marine industry is ideally-placed to exploit this resource: not only is the non-toxic and non-volatile nature of glycerol highly valuable in a marine environment, but also the relatively low energy content of glycerol can be easily accommodated in the hull space of many vessel types.
At present, the technology for GLEAMS is being deployed into the constructuction sector in the form of combined heat & power plant. The project will marinise this technology and explore how it can best be adapted to meet marine safety & environmental requirements. It will also initiate new consortia, led by end users such as offshore wind farm operators, to steer the subsequent development into market-ready products.