Rapid technological development within the maritime industry has improved efficiency, productivity and safety. However, this advancement is creating increasingly complex socio-technical systems, for which training has left human operators ill-prepared. Over 75% of all maritime accidents are attributed to human error, and smaller crew are handling more complex tasks. If safety is to be maintained or improved, it is vital to equip crew with the skills needed to manage them effectively. ENHANCE specifically investigates these issues for maritime applications by utilizing knowledge sharing between process and maritime industries. We will bring together the expertise of engineers, psychologists, human factors specialists and operators to generate solutions to cope with technological development. The project has two main objectives: a) to better understand the human role in complex socio-technical systems through close collaborations between the academic and non-academic sectors; and b) to develop new training and performance assessment methodologies designed to enhance the human performance. To ensure knowledge transfer, ENHANCE will connect academics and industry through an extensive secondment programme. This will bring together expert academic knowledge of advanced training techniques with the needs of the maritime industry and the best practice of the process industry. We will share knowledge across academia and industry, across sectors and across continents. Ultimately, this research will enable the maritime sector to improve the performance of humans within their complex socio-technical systems. This, in turn, will reduce the frequency and severity of incidents, reducing the negative social, economic and environmental impact of the sector. In addressing the needs of the maritime industry, we will also generate new cross disciplinary research initiatives, new career paths for researchers and new opportunities for long-term industry-academia collaboration.

LOTER.CO2M aims to develop advanced, low-cost electro-catalysts and membranes for the direct electrochemical reduction of CO2 to methanol by low temperature CO2-H2O co-electrolysis. The materials will be developed using sustainable, non-toxic and non-critical raw materials. They will be scaled-up, integrated into a gas phase electrochemical reactor, and the process validated for technical and economic feasibility under industrially relevant conditions. The produced methanol can be used as a chemical feedstock or for effective chemical storage of renewable energy. The demonstration of the new materials at TRL5 level, and the potential of this technology for market penetration, will be assessed by achieving a target electrochemical performance > 50 A/g at 1.5 V/cell, a CO2 conversion rate > 60%, and a selectivity > 90% towards methanol production with an enthalpy efficiency for the process > 86%. A significant increase in durability under intermittent operation in combination with renewable power sources is also targeted in the project through several stabilization strategies to achieve a degradation rate of 2-5 Hz) to electrical current fluctuations typical of intermittent power sources and a wide operating range in terms of input power, i.e. from 10% to full power in less than a second. Such aspects are indicative of an excellent dynamic behaviour as necessary to operate with renewable power sources. A life cycle assessment of the CO2 electrolysis system, which will compile information at different levels from materials up to the CO2 electrolysis system including processing resources, will complete the assessment of this technology for large-scale application. Field testing of the co-electrolysis system in an industrial relevant environment will enable to evaluate the commercial competitiveness and the development of a forward exploitation plan.