Green game for gains

Marpol Annex VI, with its new limitations on nitrogen and sulphur oxide emissions and the imminent reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions are going to create challenges for the shipowner.
Bar a few notable exceptions, however, owners are not going to create the solutions.
The work to reduce these three main emission groups revolves around engineering efforts, both incremental and more radical.
There is an urgent need for more collaboration between companies, such as engine makers Wartsila and MAN Diesel, as they look at collectively tackling their common challenges.
Emissions goals
The whole environmental technology industry could be worth more than US$5bn by some estimates as various deadlines approach, forcing owners to invest in new onboard technologies.
Experts agree that hydrocarbon combustion can only be improved so much. But with theoretical maximum limits not yet met, projects such as the European Union-backed Hercules partnerships are looking at approaching these targets.
Brussels has recently approved the second phase of the €24m (US$31.8m) Hercules project, Hercules Beta.
The targets of the second project are to improve efficiency by 10% and, in doing so, go some way towards meeting the tough emissions goals that are being set by the International Maritime Organization.
According to project coordinator Nikolaos Kyrtatos, while there are other things that can be done as far as the total propulsion plant is concerned, on the engine itself further improvements are becoming more difficult as these theoretical limits are approached.
Prof Kyrtatos will coordinate the range of studies being developed under the auspices of the Hercules Beta project. Some will look at turbocharger improvements, others at further gains from waste heat recovery technology.
Other projects will look at new material composites for engines, higher temperatures and friction issues as the teams work to squeeze out the last drops of improvement in efficiency from diesel combustion.
The Beta phase is a direct follow-on from the first three-year project, which ended in 2007, where 30 organisations worked together. These included many competing engineering firms.
Collaboration to overcome common obstacles during the first phase proved so successful that there were immediate requests for it to be continued.
“The initial achievement was the structural engineering that allowed us all to sit side by side and talk with each other,” says Prof Kyrtatos.
“People in the project realised that the goals in general were the same, so by talking together they could avoid the pitfalls although the final design and actual reliability would be different between companies,” he added.
By working in parallel on common problems, engineers were able to assess quickly if they were on the right track with their developments.
“This kind of research is extremely expensive, and if you are on the wrong track you could spend a lot of time and money doing something useless, so the general feeling is they would like this broad parallel working to continue, even beyond the project, which ends in 2011,” Prof Kyrtatos said.
Prominent
With the idea being circulated that there could be a permanent forum for research to continue, there is a belief that the green maritime technology industry is gaining a level of maturity similar to that which helps fuel advances in the aerospace sector.
While work develops on improving diesel propulsion efficiency and debate rages over the availability and implications of low-sulphur fuel oils, a number of other alternative fuel source projects have gained prominence recently.
Dramatic scale
Fuel cell development has led to two projects in Europe making significant steps, with on board trials due to be undertaken to assess suitability as an alternative auxiliary power source.
Methanpu and the FellowSHIP projects both hope to demonstrate the capabilities of the cleaner fuel sources in the marine sector.
There have also been developments in the production of electrical power from solar panels.
Japan’s NYK Line has a spread of more than 300 panels on board a car carrier, testing whether they can provide enough auxiliary power for lighting and other low-level power needs.
On a more dramatic scale – and perhaps to make more of a political standpoint – Planet Solar, a team of Swiss and French designers, is developing a solar-powered trimaran that will attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 2010.
The 31 meter, 60 tonne multihull will have its 470 sq metre deck area covered in photovoltaic cells with the aim of creating up to 13 knots for the record attempt.
While not purporting to be a forerunner of merchant vessel propulsion, it will certainly raise the case for solar power in the maritime sector.
Electric technology
Another proponent of solar power, Solarsailor, a small company in Australia that has the patronage of the country’s former prime minister Bob Hawke, is attracting interest in its solar sails.
Solarsailor specialises in hybrid marine power, an integrated hybrid electric technology, and solar panels that harness renewable solar and wind energy.
It has already created a number of designs for inharbour craft and yachts and has signed a contract with China’s Cosco shipping to develop large solar sails suitable for tankers.