Ricardo at the Helm of European Green Shipping Corridors: Four Studies for a Greener Future

Ricardo is the leading environmental consultancy supporting four European green shipping corridor studies. The studies are co-funded by the UK Government, which has been a leading voice in promoting green shipping corridors with the Clydebank Declaration for Green Shipping Corridors signed during COP26.

A green shipping corridor is a route between two or more ports, operated by a zero-emission vessel. Green shipping corridors aim to reduce emissions on routes to accelerate global maritime decarbonisation, by being a focal point for the energy transition in its early stages.

Working closely with partners from Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway, Ricardo’s selection to be awarded these four studies reflects our depth of technical maritime capability and suitability to progress ideas to implementation.

The four studies comprise:

• two pre-feasibility assessments evaluating the possible routes between the UK and Norway and the UK and Denmark to establish which routes have the most potential to become green shipping corridors. Ricardo is partnering with DNV to deliver both studies, and additionally with Litehauz for the Danish study. 
• two feasibility studies providing detailed assessments of the potential for specific routes to be converted into green shipping corridors, whether the necessary infrastructure is in place along the corridor, what adaptations may need to be made and the potential locations of these at either port. The two feasibility studies are:
  • Greening the Irish Sea - The Central Corridor: between Port of Holyhead and Port of Dublin, with Stena Line and Irish Ferries
  • Green North Sea Shipping Corridor: between Port of Tyne and Port of Ijmuiden, with DFDS

Ricardo sees green shipping corridors as an important stepping stone to global maritime decarbonisation: they will form the leading edge of the maritime energy transition. These first feasibility studies are performed on predictable routes with consistent operational profiles and thus provide a lower barrier to decarbonisation. This will help build momentum as infrastructure is developed and fuel supply chains strengthened.

Green corridors: interactive map Learn more about the green corridor routes Ricardo is supporting as we continue to support this vital sector with reducing emissions on shipping routes to accelerate global maritime decarbonisation.    Click here to enlarge the map >

Ricardo possesses expertise on vessel and port decarbonisation, and has extensive experience in supporting the maritime sector. By applying our knowledge and experience to the green shipping corridor projects we are able to provide valuable insights and technical understanding of all stakeholder groups, resulting in fully considered and constructive feasibility studies. Robust evidence on the well-to-wake GHG intensity of fuels is needed to demonstrate real lifecycle savings; through these studies Ricardo will provide another example of such evidence.

The two feasibility study corridor projects are part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition: International Green Corridor Fund (CMDC5: IGCF). CMDC5: IGCF is part of the Department’s UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE) programme, a £206m initiative focused on developing the technology necessary to decarbonise the UK domestic maritime sector.

UK-Ireland

As the busiest roll-on/roll-off route between the UK and Ireland, the Holyhead-Dublin route is important to assess the feasibility of green shipping corridors in high traffic/volume routes. In 2023, over 1.6 million passengers travelled this route, with over 6,000 sailings accounting for more than 75% of all ferry passenger movements between the two countries. As such, the ports of Dublin and Holyhead serve as key economic gateways, also handling a significant volume of trade – Dublin Port alone manages 83% of roll-on/roll-off freight and 72% of ferry volumes into Ireland. This study aims to advance the decarbonisation of this critical trade artery.

The Holyhead-Dublin corridor project is jointly funded by the UK Department for Transport (DfT) and the Marine Institute, Ireland (MI-IE). The funding is being delivered by Innovate UK and the Marine Institute Ireland. 

UK-The Netherlands

On the east coast of the UK, the Port of Tyne has been leading the way with pushing innovation in maritime. Using the considerable crossing time of over 15 hours on the overnight DFDS ferry to the Port of Ijmuiden provides a significant test of the theories behind green shipping corridors, and poses challenges for practical implementation. The work in this study will build on DFDS’ existing plans for deploying larger hybrid methanol powered vessels on this route, and further evaluate how to integrate methanol storage, bunkering and deployment into these plans, as well as the provision of shore power.

The Tyne-Ijmuiden corridor project is jointly funded by the UK Department for Transport (DfT) and the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management. The funding is being delivered by Innovate UK and RVO.

Much of the team delivering this study assembled for a meeting and port tour at Port of Tyne in November:

Taken in November when the project team visited the Port of Tyne. Photo credit: Port of Tyne 

The pre-feasibility studies will involve two stages of stakeholder engagement. This article is announcing the work and our intention to engage with stakeholders across the UK, Norway and Denmark, across the spectrum of port operators, vessels owner/operators, energy supply industry among others. We are looking forward to two engagement activities: first, a workshop likely early in 2025 to test initial findings of longlisting and shortlisting candidate corridors, and second a dissemination event with the study findings in spring 2025.

The aim of all four studies is to further progress the collective knowledge in the maritime sector on the transition to zero- and near-zero GHG fuels. The shared ambition is that the pre-feasibility studies will identify the most promising green shipping corridors between UK and Denmark/Norway to progress to the feasibility stage. The feasibility studies, in turn, will identify the critical factors to ensure a successful business case to further support those routes into implementation. For instance, fuel infrastructure costs are likely to be the dominant issue compared to ship investment. Understanding the scale of the costs and the practicality of the works needed will be informed by the feasibility studies. It is only by understanding the scale of the costs that appropriate steps in the financing of the infrastructure can proceed. Furthermore, the learnings from all four studies will guide the exploration of additional green shipping corridors in other areas.

Given this ambition, Ricardo is delighted to be working together with its partners on these four important studies for decarbonising the maritime sector. For the findings of these four studies, check back in with us in late spring 2025!

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Further notes on green corridor projects

The UK Government has allocated £206m Research and Development (R&D) funding to UK SHORE, a programme within the Department for Transport focused on decarbonising the maritime sector. UK SHORE is delivering a suite of interventions between 2022 and 2025 aimed at accelerating the design, manufacture and operation of UK-made clean maritime technologies and unlocking an industry-led transition to Net Zero. Flagship competitions include the Zero Emission Vessels and Infrastructure (ZEVI) scheme and the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC).

The flagship multi-year Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) provides match-funding to help bring pre-commercial technologies closer to market readiness. CMDC5: IGCF allocated £1.5m for feasibility studies that examine Green Corridor routes between the UK and international partner countries between 2024 and 2025.

CMDC5:IGCF follows the successful first four rounds of the CMDC, which allocated over £128m to 138 projects. CMDC1 was launched in 2021, prior to UK SHORE.