In an interview with "Entrepreneurial Limassol", Angelos Ktoris, Associate Scientist at the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI) and Project Manager of the Zero Emission Sea Transporter (ZEST) initiative, discussed the significance of the EVPLOIA APHRODITE vessel for Cyprus' waters, the partners involved in its construction, and the prospects for the vessel's utilization.
What is the ZEST project, what are its objectives, and who are the partners?
The ZEST project is funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, through the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF). It is a consortium composed of the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), which is also the project coordinator, SignalGeneriX, and FP Marine Limited. The consortium combines research organizations and private companies. The goal of the project is the design and construction of an electric battery-driven vessel, whose charging energy will come from Renewable Energy Sources (RES), either located on the vessel itself or through virtual balancing of the electricity generated by the photovoltaics at the CMMI premises.
What are the technical specifications of the EVPLOIA APHRODITE vessel?
The vessel is approximately nine meters long and three meters wide. Due to its catamaran hull design (i.e., with two hulls), its payload is between 500-600 kg. This means it can carry up to 8 people or fewer with equipment. Its speed significantly affects its energy consumption. Specifically, when the vessel operates at its maximum speed of around 8 knots, its runtime is 3 hours. On the other hand, at lower speeds, around 5-6 knots, its operating time exceeds 10 hours, reaching up to 15 hours. Finally, the maintenance of such vessels with an electric motor (compared with a conventional engine) is much cheaper, requiring mainly cleaning of the hull, unlike conventional vessels where the maintenance of the engines is required.
How important is this vessel for Cyprus?
The design of the vessel was based on an existing conventional vessel mold, which was hydrodynamically optimized to minimize drag and create additional spaces for the batteries. The aim was to demonstrate that new technologies can be applied to existing vessels, contributing to the decarbonization of the coastal fleet of Cyprus. As a result, this vessel can serve as a research platform for testing technologies, always with the aim of reducing carbon emissions in the country's coastal fleet. With innovative solutions developed by local companies – rather than imported expertise – we aim to provide sustainable answers to this important matter. The vessel was designed and built in Cyprus, for Cyprus, taking into account local conditions such as weather and distances between ports and marinas.
What are the benefits of the vessel (particularly environmental) for the waters of Cyprus, especially Limassol?
The vessel provides environmental benefits by reducing both noise and air pollution, while simultaneously being equipped with sensors to monitor water quality indicators, contributing to the preservation of clean waters in Cyprus, particularly in Limassol.
Since the vessel uses electric motors, its acoustic footprint is nearly zero. This means that the noise it produces during operation, which could potentially affect marine mammals or other fish, is minimal.
In contrast, conventional vessels have exhaust systems that either filter through the water before being released into the atmosphere or directly emit pollutants, as their exhausts are located at the upper part of the vessel, far from the sea level. Over time, these pollutants settle on the sea surface and enter the water, depositing pollutant particles. Therefore, conventional vessels contribute not only to noise pollution but also to the contamination of the sea by exhaust gases. The environmental advantage of the electric vessel is the elimination of these impacts if the required energy is produced from renewable sources.
Additionally, the vessel, in its current form as the basic model, offers significant benefits to Cyprus and Limassol. Thanks to its modular design, it has the capacity to incorporate new sensors and equipment for water sampling, enabling the monitoring of water quality. Particularly important is the monitoring of areas such as Vasilikos and Zygi, where there is intense activity of many Blue Economy sectors. Human activities generate pollutants, which, although regulated by legislation, must be continuously monitored to ensure that water quality indicators remain within acceptable limits.
How does CMMI plan to utilize this vessel in the future?
At CMMI, scientists from various disciplines can utilize the vessel for environmental monitoring, scientific diving, underwater archaeology, and testing technologies that contribute to the further decarbonization of the coastal fleet. Additionally, the vessel can be used for the development and testing of autonomous navigation algorithms.
