Chair Ann-Marie Åström: “When the academic meets the practical, it sparks new ideas”

With offices right next door to Uppsala University’s Campus Gotland in Visby, it has become natural to share thoughts and ideas with each other in common areas of interest. After having collaborated on some research projects, Gotlandsbolaget has decided to fund a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University.

“This is a very exciting development! When the academic meets the practical, it sparks new ideas. If research can solve certain challenges, it will be able to drive the changes that need to be made in shipping to handle the green transition. We want to be at the forefront of this development, so we have to be prepared to invest both time and capital,” says Ann-Marie Åström, Chair of the Board of Gotlandsbolaget.

Ann-Marie Åström is a lawyer and Uppsala alumna, and she is quick to stress that she is not familiar with mechanical engineering or ship construction in detail. But she is well aware of the conditions under which the company operates, and its challenges. As Chair of the Board, she knows exactly what issues the company is grappling with.

“There are tough and legitimate demands concerning sustainability. We’ve looked at various fossil-free fuels to see what suits us best based on the time frames and the cargo we have, and we landed with hydrogen as the most interesting option for traffic to and from Gotland. But it’s very important that we can secure supply,” she says.

It's important to choose correctly according to Ann-Marie. A new ship is a big investment that has to last a long time. But it’s also quite understandable that others will choose a different path. Conditions are going to be different, depending on the mode of transport and the task, and it must be as cost-effective as possible for the company’s own operations.

“And it’s a good thing that not everyone chooses the same option. That way you can minimise the risk of not enough fuel for the demand that exists. But we have an advantage in only having three main ports. And at the end of the day, it’s in the ports that we see the biggest challenges. The whole supply chain needs to function effectively, and we need to ensure that hydrogen can be produced and stored, and refuel ships during the time it takes to unload and load in a port, which is under one hour. That’s where we need help,” says Ann-Marie.

The company’s experience of having previously been involved in research projects was a good starting point when it initiated a conversation with the hydrogen researchers at Campus Gotland on how to safely fill a ship’s tanks with such large quantities of hydrogen in the short time it spends in port.

“Our previous collaboration went very well, so we decided that we would finance a postdoctoral fellowship that could focus on the production and logistics for hydrogen. This is not something we can do ourselves with our own resources,” says Ann-Marie Åström.

Of course, there are other things that will be important too. Political will, for example. But her experience is that it does exist, and that the green transition will be supported.

“A recent report shows that 73 per cent of all orders currently placed globally concern ships that will be able to run on fossil fuels, primarily natural gas. That does not bode well, considering how long a ship is then in operation. But we have a roadmap to become completely climate-neutral in Gotland traffic by 2045, and if we can jointly come up with a good concept in this area, it will surely mean that our solution will be interesting to more companies.”