Meet the Academic helping the maritime sector to decarbonise

As a small boy, Stavros Karamperidis remembers running downhill towards the large port near his home in Greece and climbing aboard a cargo boat. The captain was pleased to welcome the inquisitive five-year-old, and show him around.

“Port safety protocols were totally different back then. Youngsters today wouldn’t be able to just get on a vessel – which is probably just as well,” says Stavros, now a lecturer in maritime economics at the University of Plymouth.

“But the sector needs to encourage more youngsters and bring local people with it,” he adds. “Living where I did helped me develop a passion for maritime; I saw vessels deal with cargo from wine to barley, to petrochemicals.

“So it’s great to see some ports – like Plymouth – making efforts to host school trips.”

Exploring investment for alternative fuels

Stavros is a passionate advocate for the sector and focuses on decarbonisation and digitalisation. He was recently awarded Researcher in Residence status with Connected Places Catapult to explore emerging investment opportunities to support alternative fuels for ports and vessels.

“Ninety six percent of everything we consume in the UK comes through our ports, so they are of great importance for our society and economy. There are 100,000 vessels around the globe, so to start decarbonising we need alternative fuels.”

Stavros Karamperidis, Maritime Economics Lecturer, University of Plymouth

But placing greener fuels into ports and vessels is far from straightforward. Despite the harmful emissions, bunker oil can be described as an ‘energy dense’ fuel providing a large amount of energy per unit of volume. New fuels such as ammonia, hydrogen and methanol have lower energy densities, so additional space is needed for storage tanks and – in some instances – exclusion zones in case of emergency.

Stavros’s research project – in collaboration with the Catapult – will explore what level of investment ports and ships will have to make to accommodate new fuels, and the impact this will have on the space needed beside a dock and the carrying capacity of vessels.

“We have to take action with infrastructure now, because the maritime sector must reach net zero emissions by 2050.”

New vessels have a typical lifespan of 25 years, so those ordered today will still likely be in service by the net zero deadline. “The biggest problem is that the technologies we are discussing now are not fully developed yet, for example the first ammonia-fuelled marine engines will be delivered in 2025,” he adds.

Realising the importance of maritime

Stavros is grateful for Connected Places Catapult’s support and “the great ecosystem” of technical specialists on hand. “Other funded academic projects offered elsewhere tend not to keep as close an eye on how you are progressing,” he says. “But the mindset with the Researchers in Residence programme is totally different.”

He points out that few people fully realise the importance of maritime to the UK, including politicians. “Many people think that most goods arrive on trucks through the Channel Tunnel, but that’s not the case. If UK ports closed down, we would be only nine meals away from starvation.”

He warns that if the country does not invest more in green maritime infrastructure, the UK will lose ground to other nations.

Taking learnings from Greece

Stavros grew up in a farming family, and there was a strong indication he should keep with tradition and take over the business, but “managed to pursue my dream” of a maritime career.

He studied farm economics at the University of Thrace in Greece before coming to the UK to study a Masters at Newcastle University, followed by a PhD in maritime economics and logistics.

Stavros developed an index that considered cost, connectivity and risks associated with container shipping, to measure performance and determine how competitive UK firms were compared to those elsewhere. He also looked at the state of port logistics and asked how infrastructure could be adapted to accommodate alternative fuels.

During his bachelor studies, for four years he worked as a manager at an agricultural company. After completing his Masters, he worked as a research assistant at Newcastle, considering factors that affect the cost of shipping bulk commodities.

Upon completing his PhD, he took up another research assistant post at the university, researching low carbon shipping. In 2013, Stavros secured a post as a research fellow in transport and logistics at the University of Aberdeen, working on a project titled ‘Smart Micro-logistics for the Rural Economy’. “We delivered some interesting outcomes around consolidating goods in remote rural areas in the north of Scotland.”

Later that year, he started lecturing in shipping and global logistics at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, and in 2018 arrived in Plymouth to lead what is the oldest MSc in the world in international shipping, and head up the university’s Maritime Transport Research Group.

“There's a lot of fresh things happening around maritime here in Plymouth, which processed 2.5 million tonnes of cargo last year. The port celebrated its 150-year anniversary last year, and has a new masterplan looking at further development,” he says.

Recent research projects aided by Stavros include the potential for ports as hubs for decarbonised freight transport, alongside academics from the universities of Strathclyde and Southampton. He also worked on a project with the UK Embassy in Singapore to explore a possible green shipping corridor from the UK to South-East Asia.

Changing mindsets through innovation

Stavros says innovation plays an important part in the future success of maritime, but adds it is just as important to “change mindsets, business models and the modus operandi.

“The UK has good capabilities in this sector and we are famed for entrepreneurship and access to financial services that other countries don’t have. I'm optimistic that the maritime sector can decarbonise; we can make it work.”

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