Session: 07-01-01 Arctic Sea Transportation and Environmental Impact

Paper Number: 122916

122916 - Modelling Emissions of Shipping Operations in Sea Ice 

The marine industry is a large contributor to overall global emissions and must mitigate its environmental impacts through innovation to comply with international regulations. These improvements can be achieved through combinations of design fundamentals, such as more efficient hull forms, technical innovations, such as wind-assisted propulsion, and operational transformations, such as switching to alternative fuels.  Adoption of various decarbonization measures will be expensive and must be informed by a detailed understanding of ship performance. In this paper, a method to predict carbon emissions is presented and applied to the case of a medium icebreaker, designed for seasonal icebreaking in Arctic sea ice. The emissions predictions are based on an experimental regression model of ship resistance and propulsion in ice and open water, and they constitute an important part of a broader ship performance model. Route optimization can be informed by such ship performance models in combination with routing algorithms and rewards functions. Our goal is to incorporate the emissions prediction method in a route optimization framework aimed specifically at transits involving sea ice. The paper includes a detailed description of the model, a discussion of its limitations, how it fits into a routing framework, and a description of a future full-scale field trial during which we plan to evaluate the accuracy of the predictions. 

Presenting Author: Joshua Veber Memorial University

Presenting Author Biography: Joshua Veber is a dedicated and accomplished researcher currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ocean Naval Architecture Engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. With a strong educational background and a passion for addressing critical issues in the field of marine engineering, Joshua is committed to advancing the science of safe Arctic navigation, route optimization, and emissions reduction.

Authors:

Joshua Veber Memorial University
Jeffrey Brown National Research Council of Canada
Jungyong Wang National Research Council of Canada
Thomas Browne National Research Council of Canada
Brian Veitch Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science Memorial University
David Molyneux Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science Memorial University