Marine energy transportation company, Centerline Logistics announced its partnership with Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) to develop and deploy a series of barge-based clean power solutions for ports that lack traditional shore power infrastructure.
The partnership centers around the Clean Harbor Alternative Mobile Power (CHAMP) barge, an floating platform designed to reduce emissions from ships while docked in port, a Centerline press release noted.
The CHAMP barge uses methanol-fueled generator technology to provide power ranging from six-to-16 MW, offering a portable and cost-effective alternative to shore-based power systems, the company said. Centerline states that methanol burns cleanly with low emissions and is widely available and ideal for this application.
The CHAMP barge will be U.S. Coast Guard-inspected, allowing it to operate without the need for shoreside permitting or infrastructure. Centerline noted this capability makes it easy to reposition the barge to meet operational needs, providing ports with a flexible solution to reduce emissions without the significant investment required for permanent shore power installations.
Centerline and EBDG plan to announce the locations and deployment details of the CHAMP fleet starting in 2025, marking the next phase of their collaboration to introduce innovative emission-reducing technologies to the maritime sector.
The Centerline statement also noted that in 2021, Centerline launched its Visionary Fuels Initiative, a program aimed at developing new marine transportation equipment and technologies to improve environmental sustainability in U.S. ports and harbors.
