Leviathan looks to make ship breaking safer and greener

The vast majority of ships continue to be broken under conditions that pollute and expose workers to immense risk. In 2021, of the 763 ocean-going commercial ships and floating offshore units sold for scrap, 583 of the largest tankers, bulkers, floating platforms, cargo- and passenger ships ended up on the beaches of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, according to data from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

“All shipowners are aware of the dire situation at the beaching yards and the lack of capacity to safely handle the many toxic materials onboard vessels. Yet, with the help of scrap dealers, most choose to scrap their end-of-life fleet in South Asia as that is where they can make the highest profits,” explains Ingvild Jenssen, the platform’s executive director and founder.

However, Jenssen adds that clean and safe solutions are available, and in light of new policies aimed at promoting a circular economy, several companies are now exploring the use of abandoned drydocks for the recycling of vessels.

One such company is German start-up Leviathan GmbH. Based in Cuxhaven and founded by naval architects Simeon Hiertz and Karsten Schumacher, Leviathan claims to be the world’s first emissions-free clean ship recycling company, a concept that Jenssen calls “a real game-changer”.

“The goal is to bring ship recycling into the 21^st century with an industrialised and sustainable process,” says Schumacher. “Our concept envisages dismantling these ships in large, closed hall docks in the future and then fully recycling the valuable ships steel and other valuable raw materials.”

He adds: “We want to dismantle the steel completely without any hot work by using the cold water jet process. Unlike welding, no toxic gases are produced and the risk of a fire breaking out is eliminated. There will also be no workers working on or in the ship. You will only operate outside the hull and many activities will be automated.”

Trials on test objects have shown that clean cutting technology can reduce CO₂ emissions during the dismantling process by a factor of 300 and the company is optimistic that the first facility for recycling large ships in northern Germany isn’t too far away, according to Hiertz.

“The growing interest of shipowners can be felt. We are in contact with some shipping companies and are holding promising talks,” he says, adding that German authorities have recognised that this area of the maritime economy has been underrepresented in the country and are keen to change this state of affairs.

Hiertz estimates that such a facility, at full capacity, could recycle around 50 Panamax class vessels per year. “This is a drop in the ocean from a global perspective, but we are convinced that this concept is superior and will prevail,” he says. If successful, there is potential to roll out more such facilities across Europe.

With scrappers in South Asia benefitting from cheap labour and low social and safety standards, Hiertz sees keeping up with them in terms of price as a challenge. “But we have a very high degree of automation. This helps,” he says. “Of course we are also dependant on the world market and the prices we can achieve for recycled steel. In the long term, however, it tends to go up, which also helps us. We’re also observing that regulatory and societal pressure on shipping to operate more sustainably is increasing significantly.”

Working with Germany Naval Yards in Kiel, Leviathan carried out a pilot project over the summer to demonstrate its process and technologies on a 41m landing boat, the HC Hagemann 1. The 67-year-old vessel had been operating as a supply ship.

The operation marked an important milestone, enabling the performance of the ESG-compliant recycling process to be verified, according to Schumacher. Leviathan will now apply for approval following EU regulations.