Senior Project Manager
Sustainable Fuels & Decarbonisation
Wärtsilä
In December 2021, we were delighted to receive information from Business Finland that they had granted Wärtsilä’s Zero Emission Marine (ZEM) ecosystem project EUR 20 million in funding in the challenge competition for leading companies. Wärtsilä’s well-established role in the global marine and energy markets provides us with an excellent opportunity to be a leading company (Veturi) for sustainable marine technology and transport solutions, opening international opportunities for the whole ecosystem.
ZEM is a world-class research, development, and innovation project to promote Zero Emission Marine. The four-year co-operation project aims to enable a zero-emission marine ecosystem, that develops sustainable technology solutions. The project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the marine sector by 60% by 2030. In addition, all products from the ecosystem will be carbon-neutral or carbon-negative by 2050.
What does ZEM offer and to whom? ZEM ecosystem is an opportunity to network and collaborate on projects related to the decarbonisation of the marine sector. As a leading company, we want to lead the ecosystem towards economically sound carbon-neutral fuels and accelerate the uptake of the technologies that enable the use of green fuels. The ZEM ecosystem includes both large financially solvent companies and innovative SMEs. The ecosystem is reinforced by industrial organisations, research institutes and universities.
A key activity of the ZEM ecosystem is to recognise gaps in the R&D landscape and bring together partners and initiate the planning of new projects in collaboration. Ecosystem projects aim to develop new concepts and business opportunities to strengthen the global maritime sector. Business Finland provides funding for ecosystem projects. This year, there will be two more opportunities to apply for funding from Business Finland, deadlines are 13 April and 13 September 2023.
The MASCOT project coordinated by VTT was the very first project in the ZEM ecosystem to receive funding. In May 2022, Business Finland granted major funding for the MASCOT partnership project which responds to materials performance challenges presented by the emerging CO2-neutral processes of circular economy and hydrogen technologies and generates the knowledge base essential for their reliability and competitiveness.
MASCOT contributes to the ZEM ecosystem’s mission by tackling the bottleneck of enabling materials technology. As the first awarded ecosystem project in ZEM, MASCOT gives an important contribution to the programme. Our target is accelerating the green transition in the marine industry, and the MASCOT project provides the materials-related know-how essential to reach the target.
Collaboration with all the partners in the MASCOT project has been seamless and we are excited to see the outcome of this project. MASCOT was present at our Annual Seminar in November, where all projects were presented to the ZEM ecosystem. It was great to see so many ecosystem members joining the event and we want to make sure the close collaboration continues.
Since MASCOT was announced, the ecosystem has grown fast, and ZEM has now six ecosystem projects. There are still gaps in the ecosystem where the knowledge of partners is very much needed. For example, the production of green fuels is not a core competence of Wärtsilä. ZEM is looking for new concepts for the production of renewable and alternative fuels, without forgetting other areas such as new technologies, automated and optimised operations, and outcome-based business models.
This year at ZEM, we will focus more on partnerships with companies, customers and suppliers. ZEM connects players across sectors and industries, and we will enable collaboration across maritime value chains.
Please contact us if you can identify development projects with international potential in your organisation that contribute to the transition towards Zero Emission Marine. Wärtsilä’s ZEM team can be reached via our website or by sending an email to zem.ecosystem(at)wartsila.com.
