SSPA is part of a consortium of Europe’s maritime research and technology leaders that has launched the project FASTWATER. SSPA’s extensive experience with alternative fuels, including methanol, and design and development of ships with a focus on energy efficiency, will be utilised to help ensure the success of the project. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Today there are no inland waterway vessels operating in Sweden. Current limited traffic consists only of IMO vessels. Using the inland waterways to a larger extent would create positive benefits according to authorities, goods owners, shipping companies, ports and freight forwarders. SSPA’s experts and researchers studied this in one of the research projects and has now developed a business concept with an emission free vessel. Read the full report: Battery electric inland waterway vessel.

Recently, SSPA’s experts in seakeeping and ship performance in waves presented a new paper at an international conference, held by RINA (the Royal Institution of Naval Architects). A concise version of the presented paper and the results is available for download. SSPA used the KVLCC2 tanker as a case study and followed the IMO guideline step by step to find the minimum engine size. Our experts used a combination of CFD and model tests.

Accurate, complete, boat-specific and easily accessible technical information for vessels and boats not only enhances safety and accessibility – it also reduces the total lifecycle cost. This case study describes SSPA's S1000D project for the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration from start to finish, including pre-history, challenges, project lessons and visions for the future.

DenCity is a Swedish research project that develops innovative solutions for sustainable and highly efficient passenger and freight transport in densely populated cities. One pilot in this project has been to design a barge as a floating recycling centre. In 2019, the first trial was performed and more than 2,500 people visited the floating recycling centre. It was great interest for this service, and it has already been decided that the barge will continue to run for another test period later in 2020.

The project converted a pilot boat to operate on renewable methanol fuel, demonstrating the improvements to environmental and operational performance that can be achieved for this fuel. 

SSPA has developed techniques for analysis of ship hull structural dynamics over several years. We decided to share this information and join forces with several partners to develop knowledge, and a new research project was formed and led by SSPA. This resulted in an accurate model testing technique, know-how to carry out this kind of model testing and insights into possibilities to develop further important techniques to support this important area of technology.

Recently, wind power has resurfaced as an option worth taking seriously and suppliers of innovative wind technology are appearing on the market. But which ones of the numerous solutions are most suitable? To what extent will they really reduce carbon emissions? SSPA has developed efficient prediction tools for both wind-driven and wind-assisted ships in order to support the development of more sustainable maritime transports.

In the research project wPCC (wind Powered Car Carrier) a wind-powered vessel will be developed, from concept to a technical and financially viable design ready to be built within 3-5 years. This project aims to pave the way for a paradigm shift in maritime transport by demonstrating that this new transport concept is possible even in the near future. We do not necessarily need to wait until 2050 to reach IMO's goal of 50% reduction of greenhouse gases.

Decarbonisation of shipping is one of the greatest maritime challenge and the demand for low carbon solutions is growing. In the research project Wind Assisted Ship Propulsion (WASP) we will investigate how wind solutions can be more commercially attractive for the future in the North Sea region. The WASP project can help to accelerate the transition and to highlight the wind-assisting propulsion potential.

Inland waterway transport offers relatively slow, cheap, climate friendly hinterland transport alternatives for commodities transported in large quantities or bulk. Many waterways in Europe remain widely un-/underused in the past decades. By piloting eight small waterway modal shifts, the project will showcase proven concepts that can be adopted by the market.