The Apollo project will mature and demonstrate in operational environment, the disruptive installation of a dual fuel ammonia engine in an offshore supply vessel to ammonia operation reducing emissions by 70%. The project is developed to closely answer the HORIZON-CL5-2022-D5-01-04 topic of transformation of the existing fleet towards greener operations through retrofitting (ZEWT Partnership). The specific objectives include: 1) Successful large-scale demonstration of the use of dual-fuel ICE (ammonia-based) in an existing vessel; 2) Complete first classification under DNV “Gas fuelled, Ammonia”; 3) 70% reduction of CO2 emissions and NOx emissions below 2.4 g/kWh from vessel operations; 4) Complete retrofitting solution to operate on ammonia, through development of safe ammonia storage and operation, including both deck load or below deck tanks; 5) Demonstrate the retrofit in replicators in other two vessels with different use (dredging and offshore construction) and validate feasibility for scaling; 6) Support to the expansion of the ammonia bunkering network in the North Sea and beyond, obtain 100% green ammonia for the project’s needs; 7) Validated business case for ammonia as a ship fuel with operational expenditures <130% from baseline by project end. The Apollo solution will be flexible, so ship owners, ship designers, shipyards, classification agencies and insurance companies can quickly adopt it into their decision-making processes. The consortium will prepare the business case for ammonia in the waterborne transport sector, from the production of green ammonia to its use in different ships on the European scale.

A key EU policy aims to reduce the Union dependency on raw materials imports, in particular (candidate) Critical Raw Materials that are vital for the EU innovative technologies. Topic SC5-11c-2015 scope focuses on “developing new highly-automated technological sustainable solutions for deep mining … in the sea bed combined with in-situ processing of minerals”. An existing but challenging raw material resource concerns polymetallic nodules. These round to elongated concretions of 1–15 cm diameter form on sediment-covered deep-sea plains in all oceans between 4-6000m water depth. The challenge to harvest and transport the nodules to the EU shore is taken on by Blue Nodules. The governing project principle is: industrial viability within the context of a realistic and technical, economic and environmentally balanced business case for the complete Polymetallic Nodules value chain of mining, processing and valorisation. Blue Nodules will develop and test to TRL6 maturity a new highly-automated and technologically sustainable deep sea mining system. Key features are: an annual production capability of 2 Million Tons nodules in water depths up to 6000m, in-situ processing of the nodules and intrinsic safe working conditions. Technical WPs are dedicated to subsea harvesting equipment & control technology, in-situ seafloor processing of polymetallic nodules and sea surface, land operations & processes. A dedicated WP focuses on environmental issues and on an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). A WP setting requirements and assessing the developed technology controls the entire work plan structure. High credibility is obtained by linking the project work to a nodule field licence owned by a project partner and located in the most promising known nodule deposit: the Clarion Clipperton Zone. The project consortium contains 14 leading industry and research partners from 9 EU member states. The project duration is 48 months, the required funding amounts to 8 Million.

DuneFront will demonstrate blue-grey coastal and marine infrastructure as a new generation of sustainable, inclusive, and aesthetic solution to ensure coastal safety under climate change. The project has the ambition to co-create hybrid Dune-Dike Nature Based Solutions (DD-hybrid NbS) that can efficiently integrate static hard infrastructure with adaptive, dynamic aeolian and vegetated sediments. Mainstreaming biodiversity into marine and coastal DD-hybrid NbS is essential to jointly safeguard human assets, blue economy activities and biodiversity gain and restoration. DuneFront will achieve this challenge by identifying key biological, physical, and socio-economic boundary conditions, and by translating evidence on biodiversity, morphodynamics and safety from 12 Demonstrators along vulnerable European coasts into new roadmaps for DD-hybrid NbS design and installation. The integration of this multidisciplinary knowledge into physical and digital twins will pilot the development of a Decision-Support-System, coastal and marine infrastructure Blueprints, and the installation of new prototypes along one of the most recreated coasts. DuneFront will provide a wide range of stakeholders with design, installation and market-ripe business plans for DD-hybrid NbS. Translation of new research and innovations into the DuneFront targeted actions will occur within a full co-creation-procedure.