From Gray to Green –Possible Answers For Our Ocean Plastics Conundrum

Plato once said: Necessity is the mother of invention. This is no better demonstrated than by the work done by Ocean Purpose Project (OPP).

A few weekends ago, I participated in a beach cleanup organized by my local Democrats Abroad chapter at Pasir Ris Beach in the northeastern corner of Singapore. For those who are not familiar with beach cleanups, we basically had to pick up rubbish strewn along the coast on the beach and in the mangrove forest. Rubbish found included Styrofoam, food packaging, face masks, plastic bottles, cigarette butts, and many other items that should never have gone into the ocean to begin with. It was a sweaty, dirty, yet oddly cathartic experience — it made me feel better for having done something good for our planet.

But relying on people to hand-pick ocean trash on weekends is an exercise in futility. Current projections by researchers say, in 20 years, there will be three times the volume of garbage for me to pick up on one Saturday morning. In fact, if we don’t do anything to reverse the trend, the world’s oceans are on track to becoming home to more plastic than fish by 2050. This is grim news for our aquatic environments and marine life, and ultimately our future generations as well.

While there are efforts to reduce plastic use in all aspects of out lives, we are still left with a plastics industry that is producing an ever-growing sea of plastic for a society that has no real end-of-product solutions. If ever there was a time to tackle the plastics waste problem, it is now.

Enter OPP, a startup with a three-prong approach to solving the plastics problem — plastics-to-fuel technology, bioplastics/bioremediation, and changing society’s behavior. OPP was founded by Mathilda D’Silva, who grew up next to the ocean and fell in love with it. In 2020, following a successful career in entertainment, she decided to become a full-time advocate for change and started OPP.

Why hydrogen?

Hydrogen is considered by many as one of the fuels that will usher in a carbon-free energy future that we desperately need. When it’s converted to power, the only emission produced by hydrogen is water. It is for this reason that the trucking and shipping industries have seen development projects for hydrogen engines.

While hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis (see my last column, which describes my visit to Energy Observer and how she uses sea water to produce the energy to power herself), there is also hydrogen locked in plastics that can be released by a catalyst. OPP works with scientists at Nanyang Technological University Singapore and Bluefield Renewable Energy to build cost-effective solutions to take ocean plastic waste and turn it into low-carbon fuels.

Mathilda describes it best when she calls it a “gray to green” hydrogen solution. “Gray” because the raw material plastic has already emitted green house gases during its production. “Green” because this plastic is being converted to a clean non-emitting fuel.

Plastics that have been floating in the ocean contain organic pollutants and cannot be cleaned well enough to be recycled, which means incineration or burial in landfills is the only way to dispose of the trash collected. Thus, the conversion to hydrogen fuel seems a great choice if the operation can be scaled up. The reality today is that we have already accumulated piles and piles of plastic trash and those piles are located exactly where the clean hydrogen fuels are needed for thirsty transportation engines. I applaud Mathilda and her OPP team for their ingenious efforts in trying to solve the plastic pollution crisis!

MY VISIT TO ENERGY OBSERVER – A TOUR INTO THE FUTURE OF OCEAN TRAVEL

Last month, I ha

d the privilege to visit the Energy Observer, which was making a stop right here in Singapore during her around-the-world voyage! For those not familiar with the Energy Observer, she is a one-of-a-kind research vessel dedicated to the science of how to traverse the seven seas carbon free! I don’t mean in a net-zero way (which would rely on some mitigation project to balance the carbon emissions), but truly sailing with NO emissions!

This is the mission of the Energy Observer. It wants to show how ocean vessels can use renewable power to circle the world reliably. Doesn’t a sailboat do that? Of course, but when the wind doesn’t blow, you don’t want to be stalled in the middle of the ocean.

The Energy Observer therefore relies on sun and wind power. Energy is stored in lithium batteries, as well as in hydrogen gas tanks. That hydrogen is generated by seawater thanks to an onboard electrolysis and compressor system (which is powered by solar energy). The energy stored then powers the electric motors to move the vessel. By combining all these energy generation technologies together and monitoring the systems with more than 1,000 sensors, the vessel, refurbished from a racing catamaran, is always able to move. And it is doing this better and better every year!

My host, onboard scientist Beatrice Cordiano, showed me how the computerized nerve center works. Here sits an energy management system complete with not only details about power generation, but also details about the desalinization system that produces drinking water for the five to six crew members’ consumption.

The Energy Observer project started in France in 2017 with support from French industries. Over the years, because of the mission’s importance to our planet and the unique “oceanic lab” that it is, the Energy Observer has steadily grown its number of partners. Today, partners from the logistics industry alone include Toyota, CMA-CGM, and Air Liquide. The onboard REX H2 hydrogen power solution is designed based on Toyota’s fuel cell system.

Partner companies are using Energy Observer as a real-life test vessel. You want to know how your solar cells would work while being hammered by salt water? You can find out on the ship, which are outfitted with three types of solar panels at present. The technology around the electrolysis system and hydrogen generation is state-of-the-art as well.

The distance so far travelled by Energy Observer has surpassed over 50,000 nautical miles. That said, there have been and continue to be improvements due to innovations. The original gyro style wind energy installations were replaced with a wing type sail in 2019. Propellers were also changed to a “feathered” design in order to reduce drag.

The team behind Energy Observer wants to gain better information for commercial cargo vessels by vastly increasing the size of the ship. Energy Observer 2 therefore is on the drawing board and will be focused on liquid hydrogen systems. This vessel can’t get in the ocean quick enough. I encourage the maritime logistics people to look for any innovations that can be put in place to drive down emissions. At the same time I hope in the next couple years, I’ll have the chance to see another ship right here in Singapore kitted out with game-changing emissions busting technology!

Optimal Tech for Green Logistics – Making Emissions Visible

When I was advised that this month’s LogiSYM Magazine would have some focus on digitization, I immediately thought about the absence of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data in our everyday life. Accounting systems and other operational management systems simply don’t bother to measure waste and in particular, GHG emissions. Because tech investment in most large companies is made over years and years, the ability to accommodate for emissions data is usually something that has to be done outside of the usual management system data.

Raw materials, parts and services are currently all running through supply chains and manufacturing processes and emitting GHGs. Digitization of processes should include this emissions data going forward. The old adage “If you can measure it, you can manage it” has definitely proven itself time and time again. That said, information needs to be timely and it needs to be accurate. IT solutions for supply chains need to bring that micro level information on waste (including GHG emissions) into the hands of managers.

EFFICIENCY IS NO SMALL MATTER - DNV, an international society that conducts research on decarbonization, recently released its energy transition outlook for 2021. The outlook predicts that in the next 30 years, the global economy will likely grow by 111%, but energy demand will likely peak in 2035. In other words, the growth of making products does not increase in direct relation to the energy needed to make them. That is because it is expected that industries will be constantly improving on how to make more products using less energy. Indeed, human ingenuity has been able to do this time and time again.

The efficiency gains predicted though are not necessarily a given. It takes committed upper management to invest in the tools that can measure what is happening so that this greater efficiency can be realized. When it takes less energy to produce more, it creates proportionately less emissions. The ability to do any of this generally means having the tools - and that takes data. If you can provide a manager with data, then they can work on solutions.

Digitizing logistics technology is innovating fast. Companies that are investing in technology now have some avenues to get the GHG emissions data. One can have technology for the macro level (plotting our forecasting for sales) as well as the micro level (monitoring fuel economy in a truck).

I recently toured the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) in Singapore. This center was funded by both private and public sectors to advance R&D in manufacturing technologies – especially those involved with “remanufacturing” or essentially repairing something instead of scrapping it (itself a very green thing to do). Vivien Cheong, Regional Business Development Manager of Arcstone, (arcstone.co) led me past the neat gadgetry on display and under development in the lab testing areas to where her company sits on the 4th floor.

Arcstone sells digital systems to optimize manufacturing. The different stages of manufacturing are broken down into the steps taken in the factory in what they call their “workflow builder” module. For the factory itself, there is some neat calculating going on which takes the raw materials, the water, and the energy used. Using this information, carbon emissions is calculated for each step. In addition, processing times are recorded at each station so that overall production is monitored and managed.

In many factories the “raw materials” will be parts or subcomponents provided by suppliers. These suppliers do not have to provide carbon emissions data. Instead, the supplier simply provides workflow module type data to Arcstone, which crunches the numbers to offer a view of emissions throughout the entire supply chain and production chain.

In this way, operation and production data from various dashboards (tier 3 and 4 suppliers included) are connected to a main “control center” that monitors the entire supply chain. Important here is the inclusion of carbon emissions data. The dashboards from suppliers as well as what energy and materials are used in the factory are tabulating the amount of emissions in each location.

Arcstone provides several ways for the data of suppliers to be passed. It can be done via EDI, API or via a web portal. Such real-time data and visibility functions allow for supplier comparisons as well as overall emission source contributor identifications, which can be focused on for improvement. As the carbon emissions are directly calculated from the system, there is no need to badger suppliers for that specific data especially if they don’t know or have the information themselves. What the supplier does need to provide is production and utilization data, which they should be monitoring already for themselves.

DISTRIBUTION AND BEYOND - I also met with Anders Nordahl, COO of Mixmove/Orkestra, recently to share a cold beverage. After spending years at large MNC 3PLs, he wanted to get behind some tech that would innovate the industry. Mixmove provided that for him.

Anders is someone who thrives on data, so it makes sense that he would have been attracted to Mixmove’s solutions. He’s an avid cyclist who bikes at least 200 kilometers a week and he relies on a lot of data to help him maximize his routine: he measures his peddle power, which leg is working harder, his heart rate (the most important), and much more so he can improve his performance day by day. Believe me, it’s impressive!

Mixmove currently brings benefits to businesses dealing with warehousing fulfillment and transportation and includes 3M and DHL Supply Chain as customers, who primarily want to gain efficiencies in loading and moving shipments so that truck utilization is maximized and overall truck miles are reduced.

The technology incorporates AI features that optimize loading for shippers and 3PLs alike. Mixmove is cloud-based and provides visibility on the parcel level. Crucially, the system will calculate the carbon emissions spewed out with every transportation move. The mileage (using real-time optimal routing logic) is combined with the shipment’s physical details and the delivery truck type to calculate the CO2 emitted.

Data silos put up by different companies, systems, and even departments are often a main reason for overall inefficiency. That inefficiency means needless tons of CO2 are emitted. Anders has shown from his work with large accounts that by using the AI technology of Mixmove and collecting data from these different silos in an agnostic cloud-based system, great fuel savings and therefore CO2 emission cuts can be achieved. In one case the fuel and emissions per kilogram shipped was actually halved for a customer!

Siemens and other digital system vendors are also adding emission visibility features to their products. Businesses of all sizes have more and more options to report and capture their GHG emissions and more importantly have the tools to drill down and reduce those emissions. So when you are moving forward with new digital solutions to increase efficiency, do consider incorporating solutions that provide GHG emissions data. Our planet and our future generations would thank you for it!