Overview

Decarbonising maritime transportation requires substantial investments in new technologies and infrastructure for producing, distributing, and utilising alternative marine fuels. To accelerate the maritime energy transition away from fossil-based fuels, the concept of so-called green shipping corridors has been proposed. In this context, a green corridor refers to a shipping route that is supported by low and zero-emission maritime transportation solutions.

In this work, we conduct a global analysis of green shipping corridors by designing a network of alternative fuel production sites, transportation links, and bunkering ports that could meet a significant portion of the global marine fuel demand. We consider multiple alternative fuels including e-methanol and green ammonia. The results from our analysis show the optimal locations of alternative fuel production sites and bunkering ports as well as the interplay between different technologies over several years, hence providing a roadmap for the development of green shipping corridors in the future.

The joint winners of the 2024 Hutchison Medal will introduce their research on decarbonising maritime transportation, with a particular focus on their paper regarding best practices and methods related to ammonia-based green corridors for sustainable maritime transportation, giving a stimulating vision of future optimal green shipping trade routes, energy supply and infrastructure.

This is aimed at engineers (chemical, mechanical, electrical, energy, transportation,) interested in sustainability and decarbonisation, academics, school and university students.

Speaker

Qi Zhang, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota

Qi Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. He received his BS in mechanical engineering from RWTH Aachen University, his MS in advanced chemical engineering from Imperial College London, and his PhD in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, he worked at BASF as a conceptual process engineer. His research in the area of process systems engineering focuses on mixed-integer optimisation, decision making under uncertainty, data-driven optimisation, and interpretable data analytics, with applications in sustainable energy and process systems, supply chain management, and metabolic engineering.

Qi is a recipient of the AIChE CAST W David Smith Jr Graduate Publication Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Junior Sargent Medal, the Hutchison Medal, and the CAST Outstanding Young Researcher Award. He has also been awarded the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship and the Guillermo E. Borja Career Development Award by the University of Minnesota.

Prodromos Daoutidis, Distinguished Professor, Amundson Chair and Executive Officer, University of Minnesota

Prodromos Daoutidis is College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professor and Executive Officer in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota.

He has co-authored five books and 250 papers, and has supervised to completion 26 PhD students and post-docs. His current research is on control of complex process networks, design and operation of distributed renewable energy systems, and biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals. He is currently CAST Division Programming Chair, Associate Editor for Process Systems Engineering in the AIChE Journal, and Associate Editor in the Journal of Process Control.

Hanchu Wang, Senior Research Specialist, DOW

Dr Hanchu Wang is a Senior Research Specialist in Machine Learning, Optimisation and Statistics (MiLOS) at Dow. She received her PhD from the Department. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota in 2023 and obtained BS degrees in chemical engineering and mathematics from the Univ. of Maryland, College Park, in 2018. Her research focuses on the system-level analysis and optimisation of renewable-based ammonia production, utilisation, and distribution.

The material presented in this webinar has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenter's own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE or the Sustainability Special Interest Group. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.

Webinar recording