The ‘carbon recycling’ scheme will provide sustainable food for fish and poultry farms which has an up to 75 per cent smaller carbon footprint than other food sources.

Written by: Rosie Frost / Euronews.com

While we are becoming increasingly aware that a meat-based diet has a greater environmental impact than a plant-based one, few know that the biggest environmental impact comes from the food the animals eat. Just last week an article published in the Journal Science claimed that a fifth of soy and beef imported into the EU from Brazil came from illegally deforested land.

In 2017, the WWF found that 75 per cent of global soy and maize production was being grown to feed animals, mostly pigs and poultry. With diets around the world tending towards higher consumption of meat, the production of animal feed poses a growing threat to biodiversity as land is cleared to grow more crops.

Animal feed is usually made from soy, fishmeal or grains – which can lead to these devastating environmental impacts. This new process, created by Deep Branch Biotechnology, takes CO2 from industrial emissions and uses it as an energy source for microbes which generate a single-cell protein specially designed for animal feed.

CEO of the company, Peter Rowe, explained that the technology could help reduce the UK’s reliance on carbon-intensive international supply chains. Its potential use in food for fish and poultry “represents a new way of generating more sustainable animal feeds.”

Making Farming Carbon Neutral

To provide a source of industrial CO2 for the process, Deep Branch has partnered with a power station in the north of England which was recently converted to burn renewable biomass instead of coal.

Drax Power Station in Selby is the UK’s largest power station and supplies 5 percent of the country’s electricity needs. Drax has ambitions to become carbon negative by 2030 and capturing the CO2 it emits for projects like this one is part of this plan. Already the plant has been experimenting with using its captured CO2 to create new plastic products.

They have been awarded £3 million (€ 3.3 million) in funding by the government to test whether the process will work on a larger scale and what the overall carbon emissions would be.

This is partnership represents part of a wider consortium of 10 industry and academic groups called REACT-FIRST which received the £3 million funding. The consortium is “committed to tackling the global climate crisis and the goal of achieving neutral/negative carbon emissions”.

“Currently, most animal feed protein sources are imported from overseas, making the UK dependent on complicated and fragile supply chains,” said Rowe. “REACT-FIRST has been created to focus solely on addressing this problem.”

REACT-FIRST also includes Nottingham Trent University and UK supermarket Sainsbury’s alongside a number of other agriculture technology companies.

From Robotic Fruit Picking to Vertical Farming

The Yorkshire project is one of nine which received part of a £24 million funding package aimed at making the food production system in the UK more efficient. Others included a vertical fruit grower in London, AI technology being used to improve the efficiency of farms and a project testing whether robots can be used to carry out energy-intensive jobs like picking fruit.

“From robotics assisting our farmers in fruit picking, to technology that converts CO2 to clean animal feed, the incredible projects we are backing today represent the future of farming,” said UK Science Minister, Amanda Solloway.

She added that using the “best of British science” the projects chosen by the government would “help accelerate our transition to net-zero food production”.

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Taipei, April 17 (CNA) Taiwan has succeeded in breeding two new color variants in captive harlequin shrimps, a species of saltwater crustacean found in coral reefs in the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans, the Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) said Friday.

Wild harlequin shrimps that live in waters in the East Pacific typically have deep pinkish-purple spots with yellow edges, while those that live in the Indian Ocean and the West Pacific tend to be more brownish with a blue edge.

Through gene recombination and hybridization, people will now have the option of raising this type of pet shrimp in shades of indigo blue and cobalt blue in fish tanks, the institute said.

The aquarium fish market is currently the third largest pet market after dogs and cats in Taiwan, it said, indicating that the market for aquarium shrimp has increased significantly in recent years.

According to the FRI, the output value of ornamental shrimp in Taiwan exceeds NT$200 million (US$6.64 million) annually.

Based on statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the institute said the global aquarium fish market in 2019 was worth approximately US$15 billion to US$20 billion.

In the TrAM project 14 project partners work together to develop a zero-emission fast going passenger vessel through advanced modular production. “Trying to change the industry’s perception of modular and more standardized vessels has been the biggest challenge,” say modular experts Tobias Seidenberg and Christoph Jürgenhake of the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design IEM.

In addition to developing and building a zero-emission demonstrator fast ferry, the TrAM project aims to develop never-before seen modular design and production methods for such vessels. The project is revolutionary both in terms of zero emission technology and manufacturing methods, and will contribute to making electric-powered high-speed vessels competitive in terms of both cost and the environment.

From cars to ships

“Today ships are most often designed as a one-off, even though many of them are built according to almost exactly the same specifications. We are examining the opportunities for creating modules that can be reused across application cases. By combining advanced modular production principles with ship design and construction methods, the TrAM project will develop a more efficient modular system integration than the currently favoured function orientated modularity systems,” says M.Eng. Tobias Seidenberg of project partner Fraunhofer IEM.

The German institute has worked on modular architectures for cars for major customers such as the Volkswagen Group, and leads TrAM’s work on adapting modularity models from the automotive and aviation industry to the needs of the maritime industry. The proposed modular concept will be validated and refined through one physical demonstrator and two replicators. The demonstrator will be a zero-emissions passenger ferry that will service a multi-stop commuter route into the Norwegian city of Stavanger from January 2022. The replicators will be developed for the rivers and channels in London and Belgium.

Beyond Lego

“In essence, the project is about how to build the same ship for different purposes – creating one ship family for three different routes. Our goal is to develop a modularisation methodology that allows all three vessels to have the same systems and interfaces inside the hull and the same rough structures – maybe with a partly different hull shape for each vessel,” elaborates Dr. Ing. Christoph Jürgenhake at Fraunhofer IEM. He brings several years’ experience with modularisation from Airbus to the TrAM project.

Modularisation is often explained as using the “Lego principle” in design and construction. But Fraunhofer’s function first approach is noteably different from that of the traditional mechanical designer.

“While a mechanical designer normally has a geometrical point of view and starts with the shape, we start with a functional point of view – asking where we can imbed which functions. Then we try to identify which functions belong together, before deriving some sort of shape from that,” Jürgenhake explains.

It’s what’s inside that counts

Initially, the two colleagues were concerned that the project would only lead to very abstract modularisation models, like general design and production guidelines. But during the first year and a half of their research, ideas for specific TrAM modules have emerged.

“Together with colleagues from the Strathclyde University in Scotland we are thinking about modularising different sections of the hull, allowing the hull to be more easily adapted to each use case. But the essence of the TrAM modularisation effort is to have the complete inside and the interfaces of the vessel in easily adaptable modules,” Jürgenhake says.

One proposal includes a modular bridge arrangement. “It became obvious to us that there’s no reason to build a different bridge for each of the three TrAM vessels. We are currently thinking of a bridge module that can be equipped completely by the supplier and adapted to each use case. This is a huge benefit for the shipbuilder, allowing plug and play during construction of the next vessels in the family.”

Modular power supply

They also have ideas for a modular power module in which all the batteries and power electronics are stored on the upper level of the vessel instead of inside the hull.

“This is an advantage for the future. We know that battery technology will develop rapidly in the coming years, and to have the power module as an easily accessible unit on top of the vessel will benefit future retrofitting, allowing easier battery replacement or integration of new power sources like fuel cells,” Seidenberg says.

Interior modules like cafeterias are also being looked into. “For example, in London, buying snacks and beverages on board constitutes a substantial part of the customer experience. We would like to see a modularised cafeteria on the TrAM vessels. If there is enough space, this can be a manned cafeteria, but the module could also consist of self-service vending machines. Regardless of size, the key is to have all the interfaces for cafeteria services planned into your hull, including freshwater supply, energy supply, and more.” This feature will also afford future owners increased flexibility to modify the cafeteria area, Seidenberg explains.

Establishing a new mindset

Jürgenhake and Seidenberg are clear on the biggest challenge in the project so far. “In general, the main challenge has been to convince the transportation and maritime industries that modularisation is a good approach in ship design, to open their eyes to a new mindset,” says Jürgenhake.

Both he and Seidenberg believe modularisation can and should change the way ships are ordered. “There is a dominant belief that complete optimisation is the only way to design a ship. This is a result of today’s extremely specified tender processes, which lead to one-off ships due to all the requirements vessel owners include in their tenders.” He cites a common example: “Why specify a rigorous top speed if a vessel only uses that speed 10-15 percent of the time, and still keeps to its timetable?” Jürgenhake asks.

“The maritime industry also has a strong focus on initial price,” Seidenberg adds. “We believe the industry needs to look more at lifetime costs, like the aviation industry does. We are now in the process of validating estimates showing that the lifetime cost of a cheaper, more standardised modular vessel actually can be lower than an individually designed ship operating on the same route. If our numbers are correct, I believe this will be an eye-opener,” he says.

Completing the last leg

As the demonstrator vessel moves into the detailed design phase, Fraunhofer IEM’s task is to document all their findings. They expect to finish up in September or October. “Our scope of delivery to the project will be the methods used to modularise the vessel, accompanied by examples and suggestions. We would also like to include some sort of configurator tool, visualising the methodology for the shipbuilder through examples from the three TrAM use cases and showing what you can achieve by modularisation,” Seidenberg concludes.

Construction of the demonstrator vessel will commence in early 2021. The fully electric fast ferry is scheduled to enter commercial operation for Kolumbus in Stavanger on January 1st, 2022.

Source: https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/modularisation-establishing-new-ship-building-mindsets-changing-the-way-ships-are-ordered/

Japanese nine companies (Note 1) have started the Ship Carbon Recycling Working Group (hereinafter referred to as “WG”) formed within Japan’s Carbon Capture & Reuse (CCR) Study Group (Note 2), and held its first meeting. Participating members are EX Research Institute Ltd., Hitachi Zosen Corporation, Japan Marine United Corporation, JFE Steel Corporation, JGC Corporation, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd., Nippon Kaiji Kyokai(ClassNK), Nippon Steel Corporation, and Sanoyas Shipbuilding Corporation.

As the effects of climate change become apparent, carbon recycling, a method used to capture and reuse emitted carbon dioxide (CO2), is attracting attention as one of the paths to a decarbonized society.

Formed within the CCR Study Group in August 2019, the WG aims to explore the feasibility of the concept of utilizing methanation technology (Note 3) for zero-emission ship fuels (Note 4). Through its activities, the WG aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero in sea transportation, which accounts for 99.6% of Japanese imports and exports, and thereby contribute to the formation of a sustainable society.

Specifically, the nine companies listed above plan to assume carbon recycling supply chain of methanation fuel that involves the supply of feedstock CO2, transportation of the feedstock, methanation, and conversion into marine fuel. They will calculate the estimated amount of CO2 emissions in the supply chain, and based on these results, identify technical challenges and develop a roadmap for its realization.

The first stage of activities involves: (1) Separation, capture and liquefaction of CO2 emitted from steelworks (2) Transportation of liquefied CO2 by ship to a hydrogen supply site (3) Generation of synthetic methane from CO2 and hydrogen by methanation reaction, and (4) Liquefaction of the synthetic methane and using it as marine fuel (Figure 1).

In addition to obtaining an approximate value of CO2 emissions in this assumed supply chain, the group will also identify challenges and decide whether to proceed with subsequent next-stage activities along with the content of those activities. The acquired knowledge will also be widely disclosed in and out of the industry.