PAving THe way towards Zero-Emission and RObust inland shipping (PATH2ZERO)

The goal of PATH2ZERO is to achieve breakthroughs by developing actions perspectives and sustainable business models for all parties in the inland shipping chain, thus contributing to the transition to emission-free inland shipping. The evaluation of zero-emission strategies, effectiveness of policies, technologies and assessment of the consequences of their implementation on the inland shipping system is a non-trivial task. We propose to develop a data-driven virtual representation of the inland shipping system, that can be potentially used for assessing the efficiency of proposed solutions capturing potential trade-offs of the interventions in the system. This digital twin can represent the system with all relevant components in a realistic way, which is to be validated by real-world data. Subsequently, future scenarios can be imposed on the digital twin, and proposed intervention measures can be applied, based on which their efficiency can be assessed together with the inland shipping sector.

Three aspects are regarded to be vital components of the digital twin: the individual vessels, the logistic chains, and the infrastructure. As these research topics span various scales, ranging from a single vessel to an entire infrastructure network, an agent-based approach is suitable for forming the basis of the digital twin. Consequently, potential interventions can be considered ranging from the application of new technologies to individual vessels to policy measures that are implemented for an entire shipping corridor, or various bunker infrastructure strategies in the network. Additionally, the impact of the implemented interventions can be evaluated at any desired scale, ranging from the individual ship level and its emissions to the network level and the aggregated emissions in an entire area, or the impact on the logistic chain.

New concrete practical insights and perspectives for action for all parties involved in the inland shipping chain will be developed in a living lab.