Serial Inventor’s Net Zero Shipping Solution

By Felicity Landon

Alexander Varvarenko, founder of the Varamar shipping company, offers a sneak peek into Remora, a project that envisages 250-meter-long nuclear-powered carriers designed to carry dozens of electric-powered barges.

From Issue 2, 2025 of Breakbulk Magazine.

If net zero is the question, then according to Alexander Varvarenko, founder of the Varamar shipping company, Remora is the answer. It’s described as an “old concept in new design and technology”: a large carrier, or mothership, stopping off around Antwerp, Gibraltar, Malta, Suez, Gulf of Oman, Colombo, Singapore and Shanghai to load and discharge barges at sea.

“We know that by 2050, the industry has to be zero-emission,” says Varvarenko. “At the moment there is no consensus on which fuel to use – every company must choose their own. The amount of money required has quadrupled to match those expectations. And we are facing more damage to the environment through the installation of storage tanks over large areas; not only will there be completely different supply chains of these fuels, but they are also quite dangerous.”

He forecasts problems for smaller ports that lack the resources to innovate or invest – as the industry shifts towards larger bunkering hubs, “smaller ports will have to find new opportunities or even close down,” Varvarenko claims.

There are challenges ahead for supply chains involving smaller ports, and remote production and industrial facilities, he adds. For Varvarenko, innovation is moving at too slow a pace. “Lots of ships need replacing but owners are staying away [from investing] and/ or they keep replacing ships with new tonnage using fuel oil. The average age of feeder vessels today is 24 years; this could eliminate the need for replacement of coastal/feeder ships.”

Nuclear-Powered Carrier

The Remora concept proposes a 250-meter-long nuclear-powered carrier able to carry up to 60 standardized 30-meter-long, 600-700 tonne electric-powered barges. The mothership’s 32-meter-wide hold is suitable for stowing the barges side by side crossways “in slots like Lego”, with a 1,000-tonne capacity gantry crane fitted to load/offload them. The barges could carry a range of different cargo types, including dry and liquid bulks, breakbulk, project cargo and containers.

The hold could in theory also be used for heavy-lifts, modules, wind turbine blades and so on. However, Varvarenko says this is not the “main purpose” of the ships. “The majority of engines, transformers, yachts, modules, etc., could easily be carried on the barges,” he says.

The mothership could stop near Antwerp or Rotterdam, for example, releasing barges for onward navigation to river destinations or small ports across the region – avoiding the need for transhipment in larger ports “and giving new meaning to smaller ports.”

Port call expenses would be zero and there would be no costs or time loss related to port congestion, he says; the mothership would stay offshore in international waters to load/ discharge the barges, and multiple stoppages for loading/discharge on the route would be possible.

Interestingly, when considering U.S. services, this could have the advantage of keeping outside Jones Act restrictions. Varvarenko also suggests that the solution could solve geopolitical issues around certain crew or ships calling at certain ports.

“Another advantage of this solution is that the ship does not have to call at any ports for many years until it requires nuclear refueling. This is not something new – think of military and icebreaking vessels.”

Fundraising Effort

The Remora project is a stand-alone initiative of Bluemont, the family holding that owns parts of Varamar, Shipnext and other companies. Having successfully launched and scaled Varamar and Shipnext, Varvarenko says he will now be involved in shipbuilding and shipowning. He is involved in fundraising for this project and for shipbuilding and shipowning initiatives in the breakbulk, dry bulk and other sectors.

The Remora name was chosen because of the way Remora fish accompany a whale shark, attaching themselves to its body. The company that will operate this customer service brand will be publicly announced soon.

The project envisages flexible barge operations – autonomous or semi-autonomous barges suitable for river or coastal transport. The design would also enable them to be moored and secured next to each other to provide a floating storage solution.

The barges could recharge on the mothership, on the river or in ports. ABB, one of the project’s supporters, is lined up to install proposed charging stations where a barge could call and recharge in a couple of hours, says Varvarenko. As well as ABB, the project is said to have the backing of Lloyd’s Register, Kongsberg, Novali, MBM, Core Power and others.

The first phase of development will be the building of standardized barges. “The ecosystem we have allows us to offer competitive design, technical and commercial management solutions and, importantly, a platform,” says Varvarenko. “Shipnext as an underlying platform will ensure an Uber-like approach to any barge added to operations, optimizing its work and utilization.

“As part of this process, Shipnext will help work out instantly bookable pricing, based on dynamic pricing. Shippers, traders and forwarders would finally have an opportunity to benefit from easy and instantly bookable pricing for transportation or, separately, storage on these electric barges. And this would work for breakbulk, dry bulk, wet bulk and containerized cargo, just as dynamic pricing works today for containers.”

The concept is that individual investors – shippers and traders – would have an option to invest in individual barges for their own use or to diversify their portfolio, investing in a fleet that could later be leased back by the operator. “Just as it happens in carshare models in other sectors of the transportation industry,” he says.

“When a significant number of barges are built in Europe, Middle East and Asia, a mothership will be built and launched to, finally, connect the different continents and parts of the world to finalize the way this concept is initially meant to operate.”

Construction Costs

Varvarenko says the barges will be “quite cheap” to build, given their standard design and the fact that they can be 3D-printed using composite elements. The largest cost – 75% of the total – would be the modular battery packs. However, Varvarenko says the price of batteries has dropped by about 25% recently. Today’s batteries could offer a range of up to 400 nautical miles in this context.

The construction of the mothership is a different matter, requiring €70m, with another €150m for the modular nuclear reactor and equipment.

“However, the savings associated with the fact that the vessel itself would avoid a substantial part of the construction and maintenance costs associated with fossil fuels, and the fact that it will not require any costs associated with bunkering for almost as long as it operated, the investments will see a fast return.”

Varvarenko describes the Remora concept as “a revolutionary step forward in shipbuilding and sustainable maritime logistics” and he wants to see it adopted around the world. “We believe this concept will change the way liner services operate and will drastically reduce the cost of transport. The disruption here is especially concerning breakbulk.”

Construction of the barges could start next year, in 2026. “I believe it will be an easy way to invest in shipping for many traders and shippers. For example, shippers in scrap, steels, bulks such as gypsum and other cargoes could be interested to replace their tonnage, especially when there is a steady service,” says Varvarenko.

“This will be an ‘Uberized’ service; we can use the same standardized barges wherever they are needed. We need about 200-250 barges to be constructed before the first mothership is launched; the intake is 60 but we also need about 60 at each end and another 30 for storage.”

No detail of shipyard discussions is being disclosed. The proposal is that investment in barges will be sufficient to go ahead with building the first carrier in two to three years. “This would take as long to build as a conventional ship. It is not the first nuclear ship – they work, they exist!”

Where did all these ideas come from? As founder of Varamar and Shipnext, Varvarenko says: “Every eight to ten years I invent something new.”

However, adds Varvarenko, it’s important to emphasize that the lash-barge concept is nothing new. “Similar vessels, with a gantry crane, have been built in the past and one of them still operates – on a nuclear reactor – in the Arctic. The barges, too, have been built in the past.

“Even a wide use of nuclear power is not something that needs to be debated. All we do is relaunch an old concept which can finally work with the help of modern, cost-efficient technology.

“This is a scalable, easy, standardized design. We have had great feedback already. I will present the concept at a couple of conferences and am already in talks with shippers. We believe strongly in this technology and concept, and I don’t see any other that could solve all the problems.”

Varamar will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe 2025.