Machinery, Propulsion, Operation and Logistics

The joint industry project, Green Ship of the Future, focuses on demonstrating green technologies from both existing ships and new builds. This is done within four areas: machinery, propulsion, operation and logistics.

Green Ship of the Future was established in early 2008 and the cooperation is unique due to the many fields of knowledge that are involved, e.g. systems for recycling heat energy, optimisation of the hull, propellers and rudders, optimisation of the draft and speed for a given route and arrival time and monitoring the fouling of hulls and propellers.

The overall aim of Green Ship of the Future is to develop and demonstrate technologies that reduce emissions from ships, and in particular, airborne emission reductions of 30% sought on CO2, 90% on SOx and 90% on NOx, compared to 2007 figures.

During 2009, the partners of Green Ship of the Future decided to work together on a concept study of so called ‘low emission ships’. The purpose of the study was to investigate the possible overall emission reductions if the various available technologies from the Green Ship of the Future project were implemented already during the design phase of a new ship.

Studies were carried out for two different ship types, an 8,500 TEU container vessel and a 35,000 DWT handy size bulk carrier. The basis for the container vessel was an A-Type container vessel from Odense Steel Shipyard, while the basis for the bulk carrier was a Seahorse 35 bulk carrier from Grontmij CarlBro with a capacity of 35,000 DWT.

In the concept studies, only available and proven ‘green’ technologies were used, which meant that it was possible to build the ships as specified. The concept studies were carried out to benchmark the new technologies in relation to the goal of Green Ship of the Future and in relation to the coming international regulations on NOx and SOx emissions and most probably also CO2 emissions by the introduction of the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) for new ships.

The low emissions studies showed that with the new technologies implemented, it was possible to save 7.2 % on CO2, 79.1 % on SOx and 98.6 % on NOx regarding the 35,000 DWT handy size bulk carrier and 14 % on CO2, 90 % on SOx and 80 % on NOx regarding the 8,500 TEU container vessel.

The green ship technologies developed by the partners in Green Ship of the Future are, in all, already installed on board approximately 200 ships, and several more ships are due to be equipped with a large number of the green technologies in 2012.

In early 2011, Green Ship of the Future initiated a study on how to meet the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) emission levels for ships sailing in the Emission Controlled Areas (ECA).

The background was IMO’s decision that all vessels sailing in ECA must reduce Sulphur level in fuel oil to 0.1% or clean the exhaust gas to an equivalent level by 2015. In the study, members of Green Ship of the Future have worked together on comparing various abatement technologies to fulfil the IMO decision.

The study is in its concluding stages, but the objective has been to set up practical solutions as well as uncovering the financial aspects regarding installation, operation and maintenance of the three most realistic alternatives

 – Low-sulphur fuel/distillate

 – LNG as fuel

 – Scrubber technology

The basis for the project has been a newly built 38,500 DWT tanker from D/S NORDEN A/S.

In the study, the use of low-sulphur fuel/distillate has functioned as a reference case as to the feasibility of the other two investigated solutions. The alternative solutions have been evaluated by means of various scenarios considering operational profiles and fuel prices and the evaluation has taken into account that the vessel will be sailing in both ECA and non-ECA waters.

In all, the group working on this project has consisted of Aalborg Industries, D/S NORDEN, Danish Shipowners’ Association, Lloyd’s Register, Maersk Maritime Technology, Maersk Tankers, MAN Diesel & Turbo and Schmidt Maritime, together with the Green Ship of the Future secretariat as coordinators. The project has been jointly funded by the Danish Maritime Fund and the participating companies.

Results from the study are to be presented in the beginning of 2012.

Today, the Green Ship of the Future initiative has grown to consist of more than 40 partners and comprise more than 20 projects, and the initiative is continuously looking for ‘green’ projects and project partners who are willing to join efforts in the search for greener solutions.

Since the low-emission studies were completed, the initiative has worked with in two areas, both on testing and verification of the results and on spreading information about the results of the studies through conferences and articles. But, new and interesting projects are also on the way.

A new ‘low emission’ study will be driven by a large part of the companies in Green Ship of the Future and will investigate the possibilities of reducing emissions from a Ro-Pax ferry. The project is still in its early stages, but focus will be on the technical elements within machinery and propulsion. However, it is also expected that other areas affecting emissions will be investigated. The study will be performed on an existing Ro-Pax with an already known operation profile, making it possible to benchmark the emission reductions against existing data. The overall target of the study is to achieve the same numerical goals as with the two previous studies, i.e. making companies work together on finding ways to reduce CO2 by 30%, NOx 90% and SOx 90%.

In the study, Green Ship of the Future and its members are initiating new projects concerning HVAC, insulation, windows and lighting, but there might also be projects investigating how the design of the cargo deck can decrease the loading time in port and thereby help decrease the overall ship speed at sea and still keep schedule, with a reduction of emissions as a result.

The low emission Ro-Pax ferry study is to be led by the Danish OSK-ShipTech, which holds more than 40 years of experience as consulting naval architects and marine engineers.

As a consequence of the Ro-Pax study, Green Ship of the Future has expanded in size. From the original four partners, Green Ship of the Future today consists of more than 40 organisations from all parts of the Danish maritime cluster.

By Magnus Gary, Coordinator, information and communications responsible for Green Ship of the Future and Christian Schackm General Secretary, Green Ship of the Future