Environmental and economic assessments of small containerships’ diesel and electric power systems

This study conducts life cycle assessment and life cycle costing frameworks to assess the environmental and economic aspects of small containerships respectively, where two power systems (diesel engines and batteries) are compared. Results indicate that all battery scenarios reduce six out of eleven environmental impact categories, including key impacts like acidification, eutrophication, global warming, and photochemical ozone creation potentials, with reductions of at least 61%, 9%, 25%, and 15% respectively. However, batteries perform worse in abiotic depletion potential elements and toxicity-related categories. Moreover, most battery scenarios can reduce net costs by at least 6% when considering cost benefits from end-of-life processes. Furthermore, it is found that lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) 811 batteries have lower costs and environmental impacts than NMC111, due to higher energy density and lower cobalt use. Additionally, green electricity can generally reduce environmental impacts and net costs, compared to grey electricity.