Napaland wants to stop using any fossil fuel on our expedition sailing ship before 2025 and obtain full carbon neutrality in all our venture before 2030

Finland aims to be carbon neutral by 2035. Achieving the carbon neutrality target in only 15 years requires swift measures geared towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors.

On our ship we use the free and clean power of the wind to sail as much as we can but we are still guilty of burning a fair amount of diesel fuel for occasionally driving the boat and for lights and instruments, heating and cooking.  And even if we become even more efficient in our sailing and install solar panels and wind- and hydro-generators we still need to carry other sources of energy in our tanks.  We believe that batteries will only be a small part of the solution and that we will need new alternative fuel as well.

We believe it is time to break the current stalemate for decarbonisation and set a bold and ambitious goal for zero greenhouse gas emissions in the Finnish archipelago before 2035. Napaland wants to beat the Finnish national goal by stop using any fossil fuel on our ship before 2025 and obtain full carbon neutrality in all our venture before 2030.  But what kind of alternative fuel will be available locally and what technology shall we choose to convert it to usable work onboard?

For the Finnish part of the Baltic and especially the archipelago sea we are confident that reduction of greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by moving to local synthetic fuels based on Power-to-X principles. Basically converting green electricity to synthetic liquid fuel or gas by combining with CO2. Finnish companies like for instance Q Power are already providing solutions for the efficient production of synthetic fuel in their case Power-to-Methane. Their process is particularly interesting as their biocatalytic methanation process utilizes microbes originally isolated from a Finnish marshland. In Finland it is also possible to produce bio-methanol from gasification-synthesis of wood. Actually methanol is basically a simple wood-alcohol and easy and safe liquid fuel to use anywhere. Pure hydrogen is difficult to store and handle onboard and requires much new infrastructure. 

We believe it´s time to rid ourselves of internal combustion engines altogether – no lubrication oil or grease or any other petroleum products.  Fossil fuels and diesel engines have played a great role in improving quality of life for a long time but they are becoming a relic of the past. The development of fuel cells is accelerating now and we are confident that they will be a perfect instrument to convert synthetic fuel to electricity.

In a big meeting in downtown Helsinki two years ago Greta Thunberg said: „Some people say that we should study to become climate scientists so that we can “solve the climate crisis”. But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we need to do is to wake up and change.“

Happy New Year!