Vigo leads a pioneering project to reduce the ships pollution

A company from Vigo heads a pioneering initiative to reduce the sea pollution. The project will have a total cost of 4 millions Euros; the European Union will contribute 2.6 millions to finance it, 1 million of which will fully stay in Galicia, just as it was approved in the announcement of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme.

To achieve the Financing have highlighted the project’s importance, because there are a lot of competitors inside the European Union. It involves an idea thought by the Galician members within the framework of the project Cooperation for the International Business Innovation. The initiative known as Tefles (Technologies and Scenarios For Low Emissions Shipping) will allow to minimize the CO2 ships emissions and therefore to decrease the sea pollution. The objective is to decrease the length of the trip and the oil consumption to reduce costs. This will be achieved from the improvements in new technologies, ships and ports. Furthermore, to build models that allow ship owners to take decisions about the use and the fitting-out of the boats referring to costs and emissions reductions is expected. The technology innovation consultancy from Vigo Inova is the one which leads Tefles, although other entities from six European countries such as private companies, universities and public administrations also participate. As far as the Galician participation, apart from Inova, the Vigo’ Port Authority plan is made up by Vicus Desarrollos Tecnológicos and the shipyard Hijos de J. Barreras. The project will be started up in January 2011 till December 2013. They foresee that vessels that introduce it reduce their emissions between a 15 and a 35%. Besides the CO2, the amounts of sulphur, nitrogen oxide, and other pollutant elements emitted by ships, will also be minimized. According the initiative promoter, with only a Tefles development of the 10%, 4.2 millions of tones less per year of CO2 would be generated. (Source: LA VOZ DE GALICIA)

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