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Air pollution results in substantial economic, environmental, and human health costs. Mobile sources such as vessels and equipment at ports add to criteria pollutant and other emissions that have the potential to affect not just coastal and port communities, but also populations hundreds of miles away.
The Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance Program (META) supports the research, demonstration, and development of emerging technologies, practices, and processes to support a safe, efficient, and competitive U.S. Maritime Transportation System. META partners closely with other government agencies, industry, academia, and NGOs to carry out its mission. Results of META-funded projects help to "de-risk" new technology applications and provides necessary data for industry to understand "what works." In addition, data from META projects support US policy decisions.
Since its inception, projects funded through META have primarily focused on major environmental issues such as vessel and port emissions reduction and the control of aquatic invasive species transported by vessels. Over the years, those topics have broadened to include energy efficiency, emissions, alternative fuel and technology applications, hull fouling, and most recent, vessel-generated underwater noise. These topics present significant continuing challenges for ship owners and operators, the regulatory community, and the public. As other maritime environmental issues emerge, additional areas of study may be included.
Recognizing that "one size does not fit all," META strives to provide flexibility within the confines of the Program's legislative charge. Depending on the data needs, META projects typically range from investigative studies to demonstration projects as well as modeling tools to technology verification.
For more information about META projects, studies, and opportunities, contact META@dot.gov
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The James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (NDAA) directs the Secretary of Transportation, through a competitive cooperative agreement, to establish a United States Center for Maritime Innovation to support the study, research, development, assessment, and...
MARAD partnered with Energy and Environmental Research Associates, LLC. (EERA) to design and create the Ship Alternative Fuel and Emissions Toolkit (SAFE-T) a web-based suite of tools for vessel owner/operators to use when considering actions to reduce greenhouse gas...
The U.S. Maritime Administration’s Maritime Technical Assistance (MTA) program provided the funding for the following study to understand how LH2 tanks could be optimized for maritime use, and how that tank optimization could benefit the design, performance and cost of hydrogen fuel cell ships....
MARAD partnered with Collins Aerospace to demonstrate a waste heat recovery device on the training ship GOLDEN BEAR. Low-grade waste heat was recovered from the ship’s service diesel generators and utilized as the heat source for a prototype adsorption chiller. The chiller operated...
MARAD partnered with Sandia National Laboratory and the Hornblower Group to design a hydrogen fuel cell application to be retrofitted on an existing passenger ferry operating in San Francisco. Specifically, the design focused on replacing an auxiliary diesel generator with a fuel cell....
In continued partnership with the DOE Fuel Cell Technology Office (FCTO), the META program further demonstrated a 100kW to provide shore power for the research vessel R/V Robert Gordon Sproul, owner and operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO).