Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Battery- And Diesel Engine-Driven Ro-Ro Passenger Vessel

Abstract

Emissions produced by the fuel combustion in marine engines are one of major causes of the marine environment pollution and have negative impact on both human health and the environment. That impact is more pronounced for vessels which mostly operate near ports and inhabited areas, such as ro-ro passenger ships. In order to evaluate the environmental impact of a ship, a life cycle assessment of a ro-ro passenger vessel operating in the Adriatic Sea has been performed. Two different power system designs were investigated, i.e. lithium-ion battery-driven vessel and diesel engine-driven vessel. The analyses were performed by means of general LCA software GREET 2018, where the life cycle for both power system designs is divided in two stages: constitutive parts of the first stage are processes from life cycle of fuel without its use in vessel, while vessel operation represents the second stage. The analysis showed that diesel engine-driven vessel emits 79.740 kg CO2-eq/nm, versus battery-driven vessel with 27.471 kg CO2-eq/nm.