Digital Twins (DTs) play an important role in current digitalization trends across industries. As maritime markets are particularly affected by recent global tendencies such as increasing delivery costs or political pressure for decarbonization, DT solutions could provide important support for shipbuilding and shipping companies to master recent and upcoming challenges. This paper provides a brief insight into the current state of the maritime industry and shows possible use-cases for DT Ship applications throughout the entire product lifecycle. To further advance the general understanding of DTs and their implementation, the concept of a Maritime Digital Twin Architecture (MDTA) is proposed to structure practical DT features.

Shipping accounts for about 3% of global CO₂ emissions. In order to achieve the target set by the Paris Agreement, IMO introduced their GHG strategy. This strategy envisages 50% emission reduction from international shipping by 2050, compared with 2008. This target cannot be fulfilled if conventional fuels are used. Amongst others, hydrogen is considered to be one of the strong candidates as a zero-emissions fuel. Yet, concerns around the safety of its storage and usage have been formulated and need to be addressed. “Safety”, in this article, is defined as the control of recognized hazards to achieve an acceptable level of risk. This article aims to propose a new way of comparing two systems with regard to their safety. Since safety cannot be directly measured, fuzzy set theory is used to compare linguistic terms such as “safer”. This method is proposed to be used during the alternative design approach. This approach is necessary for deviations from IMO rules, for example, when hydrogen should be used in shipping. Additionally, the properties of hydrogen that can pose a hazard, such as its wide flammability range, are identified.

Fe-N-C materials are promising non-precious metal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells and batteries. However, during the synthesis of these materials less active Fe-containing nanoparticles are formed in many cases which lead to a decrease in electrochemical activity and stability. In this study, we reveal the significant properties of the carbon support required for the successful incorporation of Fe-N-related active sites. The impact of two carbon blacks and two activated biomass-based carbons on the Fe-N-C synthesis is investigated and crucial support properties are identified. Carbon supports having low portions of amorphous carbon, moderate surface areas (>800 m²/g) and mesopores result in the successful incorporation of Fe and N on an atomic level and improved oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. A low surface area and especially amorphous parts of the carbon promote the formation of metallic iron species covered by a graphitic layer. In contrast, highly microporous systems with amorphous carbon provoke the formation of less active iron carbides and carbon nanotubes. Overall, a phosphoric acid activated biomass is revealed as novel and sustainable carbon support for the formation of Fe-N_x sites. Overall, this study provides valuable and significant information for the future development of novel and sustainable carbon supports for Fe-N-C catalysts.

Lowering or eliminating the noble-metal content in oxygen reduction fuel cell catalysts could propel the large-scale introduction of commercial fuel cell systems. Several noble-metal free catalysts are already under investigation with the metal-nitrogen-carbon (Me-N-C) system being one of the most promising. In this study, a systematic approach to investigate the influence of metal ratios in bimetallic Me-N-C fuel cells oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts has been taken. Different catalysts with varying ratios of Fe and Co have been synthesized and characterized both physically and electrochemically in terms of activity, selectivity and stability with the addition of an accelerated stress test (AST). The catalysts show different electrochemical properties depending on the metal ratio such as a high electrochemical mass activity with increasing Fe ratio. Properties do not change linearly with the metal ratio, with a Fe/Co ratio of 5:3 showing a higher mass activity with simultaneous higher stability. Selectivity indicators plateau for catalysts with a Co content of 50% metal ratio and less, showing the same values as a monometallic Co catalyst. These findings indicate a deeper relationship between the ratio of different metals and physical and electrochemical properties in bimetallic Me-N-C catalysts.