Ship of the future – A slender dry-bulker with wind assisted propulsion

From the first days of our civilization sea transport has enabled trades. Today sea transport accounts for 80% of the Global trade measured in ton miles and 3% of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. More than 40% of this sea trade is performed by the Dry bulkers, making them the real workhorses of the sea. Compared to other transport modes, Sea transport and Dry bulkers in particular, are energy efficient. Despite this, with the urgent need to reduce Global GHG emissions according to the Paris agreement (UNFCCC 2015), all sectors including shipping, needs to deliver major GHG reduction within the next decades. This paper focus on potential energy reductions through building more slender bulk vessels in combination with wind assisted propulsion (WASP). The results indicates that fuel consumption and hence GHG emissions can be reduced by up to 40% on an operational basis (EEOI) and 30% when shipbuilding is included (LCA).publishedVersio

Decarbonizing bulk shipping combining ship design and alternative power

The Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stresses the urgency to rapidly reduce global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to contain global warming. The main focus in the design of bulk vessels for several decades has been maximizing cargo-carrying capacity at the lowest build cost. Reduction in energy consumption and emissions, if achieved at all, was heavily limited by the main design focus. This paper decarbonizes bulk shipping by combining ship design and alternative power. The results indicate: First, building more slender bulk vessels that are powered with wind-assisted propulsion reduces fuel consumption and GHG emissions by around 25% at an abatement cost of less than Zero, i.e., free of charge; Second, when combining slender hull and wind-assisted propulsion with Zero-carbon fuels, a 100% GHG reduction comes at an abatement cost of 328 USD per ton of CO2, which is still significantly less than the 459 USD per ton of CO2 with Zero-carbon fuels only.publishedVersio

Open Hatch Carriers – Future Vessel Designs & Operations

Postprint version of published articleThe development of Open hatch carriers (OHC) dates back to the early 1960s linked to transport of newsprint from the paper mills along the coast of British Columbia (Canada) to the news-printers in San Francisco and Los Angles (USA). Prior to that, conventional general cargo ships, tween-deck liners and trampers transported newsprint and lumber (timber). The present OHC fleet transport a wide range of commodities in addition to the initial newsprint, i.e. timber (lumber), fertilizer (both as bulk and in bags), minor bulk, containers, project cargoes and even road units on multi decks. This implies that the present OHC fleet are competing with dry bulkers for typical dry bulk cargoes, and with container vessels and Ro-Ro's for cargo types, which requires more careful handling. The paper presents an overview of the historic development of transport efficiencies from the steam ships used in newsprint and timber trades in the early 1900 up to the latest generation of OHC's. Followed by a parametric feasibility study focusing on identifying cost and improvement potentials for new alternative designs versus the present. The results indicates that alternative combinations of main measurements to enable lower block coefficients reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) per freight unit transported. Moreover, these designs might increase the competitiveness of Open Hatch vessels versus their competitors, i.e. dry-bulk, container and Ro-Ro.acceptedVersio

Assessment of cost as a function of abatement options in maritime emission control areas

This paper assesses cost as a function of abatement options in maritime emission control areas (ECA). The first regulation of air pollutions from ships which came into effect in the late 1990s was not strict and could easily be met. However the present requirement (2015) for reduction of Sulfur content for all vessels, in combination with the required reduction of nitrogen and carbon emissions for new-built vessels, is an economic and technical challenge for the shipping industry. Additional complexity is added by the fact that the strictest nitrogen regulations are applicable only for new-built vessels from 2016 onwards which shall enter US or Canadian waters. This study indicates that there is no single answer to what is the best abatement option, but rather that the best option will be a function of engine size, annual fuel consumption in the ECA and the foreseen future fuel prices. However a low oil price, favors the options with the lowest capex, i.e. Marine Gas Oil (MGO) or Light Fuel Oil (LFO), while a high oil price makes the solutions which requires higher capex (investments) more attractive.acceptedVersio

Maritime Shipping and Emissions: A three-layered, damage based approach

Policy emphasis in ship design must be shifted away from global and idealized towards regional based and realistic vessel operating conditions. The present approach to reducing shipping emissions through technical standards tends to neglect how damages and abatement opportunities vary according to location and operational conditions. Since environmental policy originates in damages relating to ecosystems and jurisdictions, a three-layered approach to vessel emissions is intuitive and practical. Here, we suggest associating damages and policies with ports, coastal areas possibly defined as Emission Control Areas (ECA) as in in North Sea and the Baltic, and open seas globally. This approach offers important practical opportunities: in ports, clean fuels or even electrification is possible; in ECAs, cleaner fuels and penalties for damaging fuels are important, but so is vessel handling, such as speeds and utilization. Globally we argue that it may be desirable to allow burning very dirty fuels at high seas, due to the cost advantages, the climate cooling benefits, and the limited ecosystem impacts. We quantify the benefits and cost savings from reforming current IMO and other approaches towards environmental management with a three-layered approach, and argue it is feasible and worth considering

Revitalization of short sea shipping through slender, simplified and standardized designs SMC-007-2016

Despite the political objective of decreasing road transport and transfer cargo to rail and sea, short sea shipping is struggling. Historically, building larger vessels has been the main pathway for reducing fuel consumption and cost, however while ships in deep-sea trades competes against similar ships and partly other ship types, their major competitor in short sea trades are the trucks. The benefit of trucks is that they transports small batch sizes, i.e. 20 – 25 tons from door to door, and that the frequency can be anything from minutes to days. In contrast typical frequencies for scheduled shipping lines are once a day, or two or three times a week, and while trucks are standardized and built in huge numbers, short sea vessels are less standardized and typically built in short series. The results of this study indicate that significant fuel and cost savings can be achieved by designing and building slender, simplified and standardized short sea ships and that these savings might be of a similar magnitude as the traditional Economies of Scale benefits which are achievable by doubling the vessel size. Significant cost reductions without increasing vessel sizes will enable shipping lines to keep the sailing frequencies and hence increase their market share versus road transportacceptedVersio

Ship of the future – A slender dry-bulker with wind assisted propulsion

From the first days of our civilization sea transport has enabled trades. Today sea transport accounts for 80% of the Global trade measured in ton miles and 3% of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. More than 40% of this sea trade is performed by the Dry bulkers, making them the real workhorses of the sea. Compared to other transport modes, Sea transport and Dry bulkers in particular, are energy efficient. Despite this, with the urgent need to reduce Global GHG emissions according to the Paris agreement (UNFCCC 2015), all sectors including shipping, needs to deliver major GHG reduction within the next decades. This paper focus on potential energy reductions through building more slender bulk vessels in combination with wind assisted propulsion (WASP). The results indicates that fuel consumption and hence GHG emissions can be reduced by up to 40% on an operational basis (EEOI) and 30% when shipbuilding is included (LCA)