SEPTEMBER 8, 2016—This past week at SMM in Hamburg, Germany, “fuel savings,” “energy efficiency,” and “cost control” were the three topics that popped up in just about every conversation about ship operations.
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016—It was announced at SMM 2016 in Hamburg, Germany, that project partners GTT, CMA CGM (and its subsidiary CMA Ships) and DNV GL have joined with new project participants ABB,
SEPTEMBER 8, 2016—This year marks the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the Azipod, which has enjoyed particular success as a propulsion choice for cruise vessels and icebreakers. Over the years, ABB
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 — ABB says that the latest version of its podded electric propulsion system, the Azipod XL, increases vessel fuel efficiency by as much as 20 percent compared to modern
“Orders are drying up. We are faced with an unimaginable situation at which our dock may soon be empty,” wrote Choi Kil Seon, Chairman of the world’s largest shipbuilder, Hyundai Heavy Industries, in a letter to employees this past March. Complacency had set in during the boom years of the 2000’s, he said, despite strenuous efforts to compete with Chinese shipbuilders.
His stark warning has been echoed around shipbuilding halls across Asia. Chinese shipbuilding is undergoing massive retrenchment with the closure of many second-tier shipyards and massive state aid for those still in business. Meanwhile, Japanese shipyards fear a slump that could prove worse than the crash that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Shipyard executives fear the worst as current projects come to an end and have no pipeline of business to speak of.
About 5,000 miles away, workers in the high-tech Kleven Shipyard just outside Ulsteinvik on Norway’s west coast may or may not be aware that their counterparts in Asia are staring into the abyss. And they would certainly not recognize the term complacency in any aspect of shipyard operation.
A combination of effective marketing, chunky investment in automation and robotics, clever use of the country’s export credit arrangements, and close cooperation with Rolls-Royce ship designers who work just across the fjord, has enabled the family-owned shipyard to build up an order book now potentially worth more than $1.8 billion.
Early in July, the yard announced its latest contract for the construction of two—with an option for an additional two—ice-strengthened expedition ships designed by Rolls-Royce (rendering pictured at right) for Norway’s Hurdigruten. Hurdigruten operates a fleet of cargo and passenger vessels around the country’s 15,700-mile coast. The order, worth billions of Norwegian krone, is the largest in Hurdigruten’s history and is a major coup for the shipyard and Rolls-Royce which, in addition to vessel design, will supply about $15 million of equipment for each ship.
Together with the yard’s existing 16-ship order book, Kleven now has work for the rest of this decade. Ships under construction include six anchor handlers for Maersk Offshore, four high-tech stern trawlers of Rolls-Royce design for German, French and Spanish owners, the world’s most advanced cable layer with the highest DP3 position-keeping for ABB, two Rolls-Royce design live fish carriers, a deep-sea mining vessel for de Beers, and two luxury megayachts for a New Zealand entrepreneur. Talk about a diverse order book.
How has the yard been able to buck the global trend, particularly in one of the most expensive parts of the world? Certainly the Norwegian Export Credit Guarantee Agency has played an important role by making attractive financing terms available for foreign owners and vessels to be deployed overseas. But the yard’s management has spent almost $60 million on upgrading yard facilities over the past five years.
The robotic welding process, using lasers, continues to evolve, with a vision control system recently installed and developed by the University of Trondheim. The automated process allows welding rates of more than 300 feet per hour transforming manual rates of a typical eight feet per hour. “This is how we believe we can stay ahead of our competition and be competitive on price,” said a yard representative recently.
However, while the Kleven story may be exceptional—other yards in Norway’s usually bustling Sunmøre region are wrestling the challenge of an unprecedented offshore downturn—the design and shipbuilding innovation evident in northern Europe still facilitates construction of some of the world’s most sophisticated vessels.
In a radius of just a few miles from Kleven, there are several Vard yards, now owned by Fincantieri, the Havyard and across the fjord, next door to Rolls-Royce is Ulstein. Between them, these shipbuilders have completed some of the most sophisticated vessels ever built. They include the latest generation seismic survey ships, light well intervention vessels, offshore construction vessels and ultra-sophisticated cable layers.
Norway is not alone, however, in blazing a shipbuilding innovation trail. Finnish ship designers have unmatched expertise in ice-class design and construction, likely to be in heavy demand as warming seas enable navigation through the Northern Sea Route. Presumably with this in mind, Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation completed the acquisition of what is now called Arctech Helsinki Shipyards at the end of 2014.
Sited adjacent to the ice model test basin now known as Aker Arctic Technology Inc, the Helsinki shipyard has undergone various changes in ownership over the years, but has always focused primarily on ice-class design and construction. More than 500 ships have been built since it was established 151 years ago and more than 60% of the icebreakers now in operation around the world were built there.
The Helsinki yard has pioneered a range of ice-class innovations over the years, often with others. These include ‘double-acting’ vessels, which can break ice by bow or stern, azimuthing propulsion for ice operation, heeling and air-bubbling systems, shallow-draft icebreaker designs for inland waterways and coastal seas, and nuclear-powered icebreakers.
The shipyard continues to innovate. In 2014, the shipyard delivered the first “oblique icebreaker” to Russia’s Federal Agency of Sea and River Transport. The Baltika has an asymmetric hull and three azimuthing thrusters with a total installed power of 9 MW. She can break ice ahead, astern or sideways and can open up a 160-foot channel in two-foot thick ice.
The shipyard’s most recent delivery is the first dual-fuelled icebreaker to be powered by LNG and diesel. The Polaris, with a bollard pull of 200 tonnes, is powered by two 6.5 MW stern Azipods and one 6 MW unit, all supplied by power and automation company ABB. She is the Finnish Transportation Agency’s eighth icebreaker.
Polaris will be powered by Wärtsilä’s dual-fuel engines capable of operating on both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and low sulfur diesel fuel. Wärtsilä’s scope of supply consists of one 8-cylinder Wärtsilä 20DF, two 9-cylinder Wärtsilä 34DF, and two 12-cylinder Wärtsilä 34DF engine. Additionally, Wärtsilä secured a five years maintenance agreement for all engines and generators including spare parts, remote online support, CBM monitoring and training services.
The EURO 123 million ($136 million) vessel, classed by Lloyd’s Register, also has an emergency response and oil spill recovery capability and completed sea trials successfully in June. Her 800 m3 of LNG storage will provide an endurance of up to 30 days when operating in the Gulf of Bothnia.
Norway has led the way in the development of gas-powered ships and Rolls-Royce has been one of the pioneers. Designed by NSK Ship Design, the gas-powered cargo ship M/S Høydal features a Bergen gas engine, Promas combined rudder and propeller, and a hybrid shaft generator from Rolls-Royce. The ship was built at Tersan Shipyard in Turkey and delivered to NSK Shipping. The DNV GL class Høydal transport fish feed manufactured by BioMar to the numerous salmon and trout farms of northern Norway.
Boaty McBoatface lives on
Rolls-Royce engineers are also designing the 128m polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough, which will be built at Cammell Laird’s site in Birkenhead on Merseyside, England. As you might recall, the project drew worldwide attention and almost blew up the internet when the public overwhelmingly chose the name “Boaty McBoatface” for the £200 million vessel during a “Name Our Ship” campaign held by Britain’s Natural Environmental Research Council. The council saved face—pun somewhat intended—by choosing the fourth most popular name submitted, “Sir David Attenborough,” after the famous British naturalist.
NERC says a remotely operated vehicle used by the Sir David Attenborough in its research will be named Boaty McBoatface instead.
The project is the biggest commercial shipbuilding contract in Britain and one of the biggest for more than a generation. When delivered in 2019, the Sir David Attenborough will carry out oceanographic and other scientific work in both the Antarctic and Arctic as well as transporting supplies to Antarctic research stations.
The research vessel will be Polar Code 4 ice class, with an endurance for voyages up to 19,000 nautical miles, space for a total of 90 people and a large cargo capacity. The vessel is also designed to generate very low levels of underwater radiated noise and minimize the risk of pollution. Onboard laboratories will allow the prompt analysis of samples.
As part of its £30 million contract, Rolls-Royce will supply the diesel electric propulsion system which will include new Bergen B33:45 engines, two nine-cylinder and two six-cylinder engines, and two 4.5m diameter Rolls-Royce Controllable Pitch Propellers (CPP). The powerful, efficient and compact engines and strong propellers will be able to push the vessel through approximately one meter thick level ice with extremely low underwater radiated noise, avoiding interference with survey equipment or disturbing marine mammals and fish shoals.
According to Jørn Heltne, Rolls-Royce, Senior Vice President for Sales in Ship Design & Systems, Rolls-Royce will also deliver automation and control systems, including its Dynamic Positioning system and Unified Bridge.
Also, Rolls-Royce deck handling systems will support a wide range of tasks, such as towing scientific equipment for subsea acoustic survey equipment using up to 12,000m of wire, or deploying equipment over the side or through a moonpool to collect seawater and seabed samples at depths of up to 9,000m.
OEMs capitalize on new era of ‘smart shipping’
Rapid advances in satcom technology is finally enabling shipping to go digital and make the most of ship-shore connections. While a handful of companies have wired up their ships over the last few years—notably the world’s largest container line, Maersk, high-throughput broadband now facilitates 24/7 connectivity and introduces a new era of remote monitoring, diagnostics, predictive maintenance and shore-side support.
Other transport modes have been using these technologies for some time, but satellite coverage across the world’s oceans has remained a challenge. Many thousands of unconnected ships still provide manually prepared noon reports for managers ashore, an asset monitoring procedure which some from outside shipping can scarcely believe.
Rolls-Royce, through its TotalCare service, has been monitoring the performance of thousands of jet engines for years. Instead of signing service agreements and charging customers for call-outs, spare parts and attendance at unexpected breakdowns, the company’s “power-by-the-hour” concept is aimed at keeping planes in the air and avoiding any downtime.
Earlier this year, London-listed Inmarsat launched Fleet Xpress, a high-throughput broadband service available through its Global Xpress network on its latest satellite constellation. As well as enabling a completely new range of ship-shore connections including internet, email, social media and video conferencing, third party app providers can procure bandwidth on Fleet Xpress to provide their own “smart” services (see accompanying feature, “Fleet Xpress brings ‘smart’ ship tipping point,” for more details).
Systems similar to the Rolls-Royce TotalCare service are now being introduced in shipping. Wärtsilä recently paid EURO 43 million ($47.5 million) for Finnish energy management and analytics firm Eniram which has sensor and analytics equipment installed on about 270 vessels and a turnover of EURO 10 million ($11 million) in 2015. The Helsinki-based firm has established a sound track record in raising vessel efficiency by optimizing trim, engine load and speed, thereby saving fuel and cutting emissions.
The acquisition will strengthen the company’s recently launched Wärtsilä Genius service in which key components are monitored in real time, exceptions noted, and maintenance procedures optimized. A virtual service engineer will also be available as part of the service and the company plans to make more details available at this year’s SMM in September.
Competitor ABB is preparing to open its fourth “Integrated Operations Center” in the United States later this year, probably in Houston. The company has already opened a facility for its offshore clients in Billingstad, Norway, and two similar centers for shipping customers in Helsinki and Singapore.
A fifth center is also likely to be set up in China. By mid-year, ABB had established real-time connections between the centers and clients’ ships, enabling ABB personnel to track performance and provide shore-side support if necessary. Meanwhile Rolls-Royce Marine is also in the process of setting up connections to monitor its equipment in operation at sea.
Following a successful remote monitoring pilot project, Radio Holland recently struck a deal with China Navigation Company for the maintenance of its navcom equipment onboard the owner’s newbuild, multipurpose vessels and bulk carriers.
“The maintenance agreement with Radio Holland has been designed to dovetail with the end of the warranty period for our newbuildings,” says Martin Cresswell, Fleet Director, China Navigation Co. Pte., “and is a continuation of the excellent cooperation that we have built over the last few years. The agreement incorporates remote monitoring, which we believe will significantly reduce out of service periods, increasing operational safety.”
MAN Diesel’s largest two-stroke engine yet
Just this past June, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) acquired Wärtsilä’s 30% shareholding in Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd. (WinGD). WinGD, Winterthur, Switzerland, will continue as an independent, international company to develop and innovate its two-stroke low-speed marine engine portfolio serving all merchant markets and customers worldwide.
WinGD was one of the earliest exponents of diesel technology. It started the development of large internal combustion engines in 1898 under the “Sulzer” name.
“With the transfer of the shares in WinGD from Wärtsilä Cooperation to CSSC, we will be able to establish even closer cooperation with one of the leading global shipbuilding conglomerate CSSC enabling us to accelerate the development of reliable, efficient and innovative two-stroke low-speed engines meeting the market demands of merchant shipping of the future. WinGD will continue to work with the Wärtsilä Corporation Service Network to serve our customers for after-sales support,” says Martin Wernli, CEO of WinGD.
In other news in the two-stroke diesels, this past May, the 19,437-TEU MSC Jade was delivered by Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) with what is the largest and most powerful engine yet from MAN Diesel & Turbo. Built by Doosan Engine in Korea under license from MAN Diesel & Turbo, the MAN B&W 11G95ME-C9.5 two-stroke engine is rated at an impressive 75,570 kW (103,000 hp).
The G95 is a popular choice in the large containerships (9,000 to 21,000 TEU), with 68 sold in the segment since August 2013.
“We attribute the G95’s popularity in this segment to its ability to provide sufficient power for such vessels to reliably achieve their desired operating speed,” says Ole Grøne, Senior Vice President Low-Speed Sales and Promotions, MAN Diesel & Turbo. “Here, the G95’s rpm ensures that a propeller of optimal size can be employed, in turn delivering a low fuel-oil consumption for an optimal fuel economy.
Japan’s Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, another MAN Diesel licensee, completed the world’s first ME-GIE ethane-operated two-stroke diesel engine. The Mitsui-MAN B&W 7G50ME-C9.5-GIE will be installed in the first of three 36,000 m3 liquefied ethane gas carriers being built by Sinopacific Offshore Engineering in China.
MAN Diesel & Turbo reports that ethane was chosen as fuel over HFO because of its competitive pricing as well as the significantly shorter bunkering time it entails. As a fuel, its emissions profile is also better than HFO, as it contains a small amount of sulphur, 15-20 lower CO2 and emits signficantly fewer particles during combustion. The ME-GI engine can also easily be converted to run on methane, if the operator desires.
JUNE 7, 2016 — ABB Turbocharging has used the CIMAC Congress in Helsinki as the opportunity to introduce its first dedicated turbocharger for marine auxiliary engine applications. Developed in cooperation with IHI
MAY 12, 2016 — A Chinese polar science research icebreaker will have an ABB Azipod propulsion system. The Polar Research Institute of China ship —the first vessel of its type to be
Soon, noon-day reporting from fallible human beings will be a thing of the past. From cradle to grave, a whole new approach to ship efficiency has been made possible by recent advances in IT and data processing. Now, a step change in “always-on” ship connectivity will allow maritime assets to be monitored and managed remotely right round the clock.
As we reported in “Shipping’s Space Age Future” (ML April 2016, p. 37), perhaps the most ambitious project on the go in Europe is the Rolls-Royce-led Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWAI) in which other maritime firms including DNV GL, Inmarsat, Deltamarin and NAPA are also involved. Other participants include top academics from various Finnish universities.
At a project update meeting recently in Helsinki, Rolls-Royce President – Marine, Mikael Makinen declared: “Autonomous shipping is the future of the maritime industry. As disruptive as the smart phone, the smart ship will revolutionize the landscape of ship design and operations.”
Delegates heard that the sensor technology is now sufficiently sound and commercially available so that algorithms required for robust decision-making—the vessel’s virtual captain—are not far away. Now the arrays of sensors are to be tested over the coming months on board Finferries’ 65-meter-long double-ended ferry, Stella.
“Some of the distinct goals of this project are to make a difference in marine safety and energy efficiency,” Päivi Haikkola, Manager, R&D, Deltamarin Ltd., told Marine Log. “We want to mitigate human error.”
Finferries and dry bulk shipping company ESL Shipping Oy are the first ship operators to join the project, which aims to explore ways in which to combine existing communication technologies as effectively as possible for autonomous ship control. Inmarsat’s involvement is key.
The London-listed communications company recently began the roll-out of its new Fleet Xpress service, seen by many as truly a light-bulb moment. Preparing the ground for rapid advances in smart ship operation and crew welfare, the new service now provides always-on high-speed broadband communication between maritime and offshore assets at sea, and shore-based managers. It is the first time that such a service has been available from a single operator.
Fleet Xpress will also facilitate cloud-based applications from third parties with smart systems to raise ship operating efficiency and improve the life-quality of seafarers. For the first time, big data can be used to improve asset management and maintenance.
IT advances have also facilitated a new approach to ship design. Model basins and testing tanks still have their place, of course, but thousands of relatively high-speed computational iterations can measure the relative benefits of small design changes in a way that has not been possible before.
Take the Finnish company Foreship, for example. Its capabilities in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the super-efficient hull forms which it has developed have propelled the company into a position as one of the top ship design consultants to global cruise lines, advising both on newbuilding plans, conversions and retrofits.
In a couple of months, the first of two 4,700 dwt “EcoCoaster” cargo ships is due for delivery to Finland’s Meriaura Group from the Royal Bodewes yard in the Netherlands. Foreship carried out extensive hull optimization work and, as a result, these vessels will burn only about half of the fuel compared to an existing vessel of similar size and class.
Foreship worked with both the owner and Aker Arctic Technology on the ships which will be able to run on biofuel or marine gasoil. Meriaura plans to have at least half of its fleet – currently about 20 ships – based on EcoCoaster designs by 2020. Since ordering the 4,700 dwt units, work has been carried out on larger designs.
Also hailing from Finland is progressive ship design firm Deltamarin. Now a subsidiary of Singapore-listed AVIC International Maritime Holdings Limited and ultimate Chinese ownership, the company’s range of super-efficient B.delta bulk carriers spanning a size range from 28,000 dwt to 210,000 dwt has caught the attention of long-established dry bulk owners including heavyweights such as Algoma, Canada Steamship, Cosco, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Oldendorff.
Of course the catalyst for taking a fresh look at the hull forms which had not changed for decades was the spike in bunker prices. But although the oil price collapse means today’s fuels cost only a fraction of prices two or three years ago, the search for improved economy has developed a momentum of its own, and nowhere is this more obvious than amongst leading propulsion companies, many of which are to be found in Europe.
While big low-speed diesel manufacturers like MAN Diesel & Turbo and Wärtsilä have made huge strides in raising the fuel efficiency of large engines, it is among some of the smaller niche machinery providers where true design innovation is to be found. Electrical power, energy storage and the growing popularity of azimuth thrusters are fiercely fought-after markets. ABB, Rolls-Royce, Steerprop, and Wärtsilä all feature in a market popular with operators of cruise ships, workboats, offshore support vessels and dynamically positioned offshore units of various types.
ABB, for example, recently won a European Marine Engineering Award for its Azipod D electric propulsion system with a power range from 1.6MW to 7MW. Launched last year, the latest Azipod was designed to allow its use on a wider range of ship types. It incorporates various innovative features including a new hybrid cooling system which contributes to a requirement for 25% less installed power and similar fuel savings.
The first cruise ship with Azipod D will be the 16,800 gt Scenic Eclipse being built by Uljanik shipyard in Croatia. The Scenic Eclipse (pictured above) is being built to Polar Class 6 and will operate in the summer waters of the Polar regions when it is delivered in 2018. The 228-passenger ship will have two 3MW Azipods installed.
Meanwhile, ABB recently announced a deal to supply a new electrical power system based on its Onboard DC Grid system for a hybrid car ferry in Norway. Initially the vessel, for Torghatten Trafikkselskap will operate as a hybrid with two battery packs contributing to peak demand. However, the 60-car, 250-passenger vessel can be easily modified to become fully electric in due course by adding 16 battery packs and a shore connection.
For the cruise ship and offshore vessel markets, Wärtsilä recently unveiled the Wärtsilä WTT-40 transverse thruster, which features a 4,000 kW power level and a 3,400 mm diameter controllable pitch propeller. The thruster complies with the U.S. EPA’s latest VGP2013 regulations. It also features integrated hydraulics to save machinery room space and installation and commissioning time in the shipyard.
Meanwhile, last year Steerprop Ltd. landed orders for a total of ten SP25D units to serve as main propulsion for three inland towboats being built for SCF Marine at C&C Marine & Repair, Belle Chasse, LA. The propulsors will be delivered this summer to the shipyard by Karl Senner, LLC., Kenner, LA, the North American distributor for Steerprop. These will be the largest and highest horsepower inland towboats equipped with Z-drives built in North America to date, according to Chris Senner of Karl Senner, LLC. He adds, “It is imperative to consider the harsh conditions of the inland waterways and select a unit suited for the environment, which is why we propose the equivalent of an ice-class rated unit.”
A new generation of much more fuel and operationally efficient newbuilds, however, does nothing for the tens of thousands of existing vessels built before the new wave of design innovation began. But there are a range of initiatives in progress focused on enhancing existing ship efficiency.
Germany’s Becker Marine Systems is a leading light in energy-efficient retrofits and appendages. The company recently signed a deal with Abu Dhabi’s Adnatco to fit some 20 vessels with Becker Mewis Ducts (pictured at right). Rudder modifications and Becker Twisted Fins are also generating a steady pipeline of sales.
Walter Bauer, Sales Director, concedes that sales volume has reduced. But he says that this is partly a result of the dire state of the bulk carrier market. Tanker business, he says, is holding up well.
But what to do with almost-obsolete panamax container ships? Owing to beam constraints, they are generally long and relatively thin, and were mostly built in an era of cheap fuel and fast sailing speeds. They are not particularly efficient from a box-carrying point of view, but are in dire straits today, competing with larger ships and lower slot costs. There are more than 800 such vessels in the world fleet today and well over half are less than 10 years old. They are likely to prove increasingly unpopular with charterers.
Cargo access specialist MacGregor is one of several companies which offers capacity increasing conversions for container ships. By slicing a vessel in half lengthways, a newly constructed midship section can be inserted and stack heights raised by lifting the navigation bridge.
In a similar project, the capacity of the 4,860 TEU MSC Geneva, owned by Reederei NSB, was increased to 6,300 TEU. The five-month widening project, undertaken in close cooperation with Hamburg’s Technology GmbH, was completed at Huaran Dadong Dockyard in China. Through its subsidiary NSB Marine Solutions, Reederei NSB is now offering to assist in similar projects for third parties.
APRIL 22, 2016 — ABB is to modernize a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker, installing the latest hardware and software onboard the 38 year old Pierre Radisson under a C$3 million contract awarded
Tucked away in southwestern Finland is Salo, a town of about 50,000, where 40 percent of all the doors for large cruise ships are produced. Antti Marine’s production facility in Salo has produced a quarter of a million doors for 300 cruise ships in just over 20 years. It takes about 10 weeks to produce a typical order of 3,000 doors. They are supplied over a period of six months, as and when the ship’s cabins are built
“We are devoted to lean thinking,” says Commercial Director Markko Takkinen. “The production time of the doors is short, as we do not want them remain in storage here.”
Antti Marine specializes in what it calls ‘“tailored mass production”—necessary because on one cruise ship there may be 150 different types of doors.
Antti Marine is not the only Finnish marine company that benefits from many of the world’s large cruise ship fleet being built in Finland.
Cruise ships also have a lot of toilets and a need for a lot of waste management systems. Finnish headquartered Evac Group has just received its biggest cruise vessel contract ever: total waste management systems for four large cruise ships plus an option to outfit an additional six vessels. The initial four-vessel contract is valued at about EURO 30 million.
Each ship will have an Evac Cleansea wastewater treatment plan, allowing operation in Environmentally Sensitive Sea Areas (ESSAs) and Special Areas (SAs), dry and wet waste treatment systems, a bio sludge treatment unit, plus vacuum collecting systems and some 3,000 vacuum toilets.
Evac also supplies its products to a wide range of users ashore and afloat. So, too, does fire protection specialist Marioff Corporation Oy, but its roots are in the marine market and it last year launched a new generation Hi-Fog 3000 sprinkler series for marine applications that replaces earlier Hi-Fog 1000 and Hi-Fog 2000 sprinkler series.
“With the launch of this new generation of Hi-Fog 3000 sprinklers, we are offering to our marine customers enhanced Hi-Fog systems with faster activation, more efficient suppression and improved passenger and crew safety,” says John Hemgård, Director of Marine Business, Marioff Corporation Oy.
The Hi-Fog 3000 sprinkler series is designed, tested and type approved according to IMO Res.A800(19) as amended in IMO Res.MSC.265(84).
Another Finnish product that really took off after its widespread adoption is ABB’s Azipod. It’s become the propulsor of choice for cruise ships and ABB is currently delivering the complete electrical power plant and propulsion systems for two new 3,300 passenger cruise ships building at Germany’s Meyer Werft. The 20.5 MW Azipod XO propulsion unit for the first of the ships recently left the ABB factory in Helsinki.
ABB has delivered, or has on order, Azipod propulsion units for about 200 vessels
Each Azipod propulsion unit takes about two months for technicians to assemble at ABB’s Vuosaari plant. Across town at ABB’s Helsinki motors, generators and drives factory, the powerful synchronous motors at the system’s core take shape over six months.
COOPERATION AMONG STAKEHOLDERS
The major driver for marine engine designers is bringing engines into compliance with emissions requirements while keeping fuel consumption and maintenance costs under control.
A new pressurized EGR (exhaust gas recovery) economizer from Alfa Laval shows how Scandinavian maritime innovation often results from a cooperation between suppliers, university departments and shipowners. It also illustrates that, for some ships, EGR may be a better means of coming into compliance with new NOx limits than the better known SCR (selective catalytic reduction).
In a project supported by the Danish Energy-Technological Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP) and developed in cooperation with Aalborg University, the EGR economizer has been rigorously tested aboard the containership Maersk Cardiff.
“As a front-runner in the pursuit of green technologies, we were keen to see what the Aalborg EGR-HPE could do,” says Ole Christensen, Senior Machinery Specialist at A.P. Moller-Maersk. “But while we were enthusiastic about the boiler’s potential, we were also somewhat uncertain as how it would handle the physical realities of EGR. The temperatures are twice as high as those of traditional waste heat recovery, and the gas pressures are far greater.”
Those concerns disappeared when the boiler was brought online with the Maersk Cardiff’s two-stroke MAN B&W 6S80ME-C9 engine in November 2014. “Not only did the boiler survive,” says Christensen, “[but also] the results we have seen during testing are very promising.”
“EGR provides Tier III NOx compliance with a very compact footprint, but compliance itself is only part of the full potential,” says John Pedersen, Business Manager, Boilers, Combustion & Heaters at Alfa Laval. “Working closely with MAN Diesel & Turbo to optimize the EGR technology, we saw additional opportunities through our expertise in marine boilers.”
In the EGR process, around 30% of the exhaust gas is directed back into the engine, which reduces the combustion temperature and thus the production of NOx. Since only the remaining 70% of the gas reaches the traditional exhaust gas boiler after the turbocharger, waste heat recovery is reduced by 30% as well.
The Aalborg EGR-HPE is a revolutionary new economizer enclosed in a pressure casing that is placed in-line ahead of the pre-scrubber sprayers in the EGR circuit.
“By moving the break point for waste heat recovery from a medium engine load down to a low load, the Aalborg EGR-HPE enables even slower steaming,” says Pedersen. “That means fuel savings that quickly pay back the economizer, offset the EGR investment and lower CO2 emissions on top of the NOx reduction.”
Positioned ahead of the pre-scrubber spray jets, the Aalborg EGR-HPE has access to much higher temperatures than traditional exhaust gas boilers. It is integrated with the conventional waste heat recovery after the turbocharger by its steam drum, which is shared with the traditional exhaust gas boiler. With the output of the traditional economizer feeding into the shared drum, the Aalborg EGR-HPE produces extremely high-quality steam with a temperature of just above 400°C, bringing the waste heat recovery system to a much higher level of efficiency.
Using the Aalborg EGR-HPE in an integrated system allows waste heat recovery to occur at lower main engine loads than possible with a traditional waste heat recovery system in Tier III operation. This creates the possibility of even slower steaming.
“The EGR economizer makes waste heat recovery beneficial at far lower engine loads, down to around 30%” says Pedersen. “This means that vessels can steam even slower, with huge fuel savings as a result.”
DUAL FUEL
B&W in MAN-B&W stands for Burmeister & Wain and the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen built the Selandia, the world’s first successful diesel-powered oceangoing ship. That was in 1912.
More than a century later MAN Diesel & Turbo in Copenhagen is still on the cutting edge of diesel innovation.
One beneficiary of this is TOTE Maritime which opted for MAN Diesel & Turbo dual fuel technology for its two new Marlin Class, Jones Act containerships. Both of these ships have been delivered for operation between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, burning LNG as fuel and thereby meeting all U.S. SECA emissions requirement. Each is powered by the world’s first dual-fuel slow-speed engine, an MAN-B&W 8L70ME-GI, built in Korea by licensee Doosan Engine.
The technology in the ME-GI engines wasn’t just pulled out of a hat. It is a natural development of the MAN B&W low speed electronically controlled ME family of engines. The first testing of the GI principles was carried out in 1987 and MAN Diesel
& Turbo introduced its first two-stroke ME-GI dual fuel engine series in 2011, adding the ME-LGI engine series (which can burn liquid fuels such as methanol and ethanol) in 2013.
In theory, any ME engine can be converted into an ME-GI engine, but to be recognized by a classification society as “LNG ready” an ME engine equipped newbuild will have to be designed with provision for such things as the necessary LNG fuel tanks, piping and other ancillaries.
MEDIUM SPEEDS, TOO
LNG fueling has also proved an attraction for many operators of vessels with medium speed diesels who have to operate in emissions control area.
That trend sees Wärtsilä set to deliver the 100th Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel marine engine from the factory in early 2016. It is part of an order for three new large escort tugs under construction for Norwegian operator Østensjø Rederi by Spanish shipbuilder Astilleros Gondan. The tugs will operate at Statoil’s Melkøya terminal near Hammerfest in Norway.
“These 100 engines do not include those delivered for land-based energy generation applications,” says Lars Anderson, Vice President, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.
“Within its power range, the Wärtsilä 34DF has become the workhorse of the marine industry, thanks to its superior reliability and lower operating costs. It is a highly efficient engine that is also making a notable contribution to environmental compliance,”
The Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engine was upgraded in 2013 with a higher MCR (maximum continuous rating) and better efficiency than its earlier version, the first of which was delivered in 2010. The upgraded version has a power output range from 3,000 to 10,000 kW at 500 kW per cylinder.
ELIMINATE THE ENGINE?
Of course, if you can eliminate the engine and switch to battery power, that gets rid of emissions issues entirely. One area where this could be possible is in certain short range ferry operations and we have already noted the E-ferry way project under way in Denmark at Søby Værft AS.
Wärtsilä, too, is eyeing this niche. In January it launched a concept for a series of zero or low emission shuttle ferries. The concept has been developed in line with new Norwegian environmental regulations for ferries, and Wärtsilä says this regulatory trend is also evident in other countries.
The ferries are designed to run entirely on batteries or in a battery-engine hybrid configuration where the fuel options are liquefied natural gas (LNG) or biofuel.
In plug-in operation, the fuel consumption is reduced by 100 percent compared to conventional installations, and all local emissions are completely eliminated. With the plug-in hybrid configuration, emissions are reduced by up to 50 percent.
The concept features Wärtsilä’s new wireless inductive charging system, which offers major benefits for typical shuttle ferry operations involving 20,000 or more departures a year because of its time and energy savings. The system eliminates physical cable connections, thus reducing wear and tear and enabling charging to begin immediately when the vessel arrives at quay.
Wärtsilä has now signed an agreement with Cavotec SA to jointly develop a combined induction charging and automatic mooring concept. It would incorporate Wärtsilä’s wireless induction power transfer into a vacuum-based automated mooring technology in which remote controlled vacuum pads recessed into, or mounted on the quayside, moor and release vessels in seconds.
FILTER PROMISES TO CUT NOX
The Exilator, an environmental filter for smaller ships, able to reduce both sulfur, carbon monoxide, NOx and noise, has been successfully tested on a Danish Maritime Authority ship. The technology has been testing over a 12-month project phase followed by a three-month practical test of the concept on the Danish Maritime Authority’s ship Poul Løwenørn. The filter’s performance has been documented by the Danish Technological Institute, and the installation and mounting of the filter has been approved by LR.
The filter has been designed for ships with engines of up to 6 MW. Current regulations don’t require the cleaning of exhaust gas from smaller ships if they already sail on marine diesel with a maximum sulfur content of 0.1%. Still, developer Exilator ApS
believes that there is already a market for the filter, as it reduces soot pollution and NOx on the ship itself and also cuts engine noise considerably — particularly attractive in the yachting sector, or expedition vessels sailing in very sensitive nature areas.
According to the test from the Danish Technological Institute, the filter reduces soot particle emissions by 99,1%, carbon monoxide by 98% and NOx by 11%. Though those tests didn’t cover the filter’s noise reduction properties but the company expects a noise reduction up to 35 dB, including low frequency noise.
Financing for development and testing was secured through the Danish Growth Fund and investment & development company CapNova.
The filter works by catalytically incinerated the soot in the exhaust as soon the ship’s engines reach exhaust temperatures above 325 degrees C. Ash is accumulated in the filter, which means that the filters must be cleaned after about 5,000 operational hours, as part of the recycling process.
The filter requires that the ship uses marine gas oil with a maximum sulfur content of 0.1%. According the test, the filter improves the ship’s fuel consumption by around 1%.
The exhaust gas, after passing through the turbo charger, goes to a muffler that removes the deep resonance. Then comes the particle filter, which also serves as an oxidation catalyst, where the soot is captured and burned – and finally the gas is led through a reducing catalyst, which minimizes NOx and NO2, before being emitted into the atmosphere.
Development is now underway in a collaboration with DTU, the Technological Institute and an engine manufacturer aimed at increasing the filter’s NOx reduction from 11% to 40% in phase 1, and to 80% in the subsequent phase 2. When this is achieved, the filter will enable compliance with IMO Tier III NOx limits.
SCRUBBERS
Shipowners face no shortage of options if they decide to use exhaust gas scrubbers to cut sulfur emissions. Recent customers for Alfa Laval’s PureSOx exhaust gas cleaning systems include Buss Shipping, which is retrofitting hybrid PureSOx systems on two 1,025 TEU container feeder ships that operate exclusively in Emission Control Areas (ECAs). Since they frequent the low-alkalinity waters between Rotterdam and St. Petersburg, as well as ports like Hamburg with zero-discharge requirements, a scrubber with closed-loop mode was a necessity.
Each ship will receive a hybrid PureSOx system with multiple inlets, connecting the main engine and two auxiliary engines to one U-design scrubber. In contrast to earlier systems with multiple inlets, the inlets will now lead into a single scrubber jet section – an advance in construction that will make the scrubber even more compact.
“The PureSOx solution was well engineered and allowed a sophisticated integration of the scrubber system into our container feeder ships,” says Christoph Meier, Project Manager, Buss Shipping. “The custom construction let us avoid major modifications inside the vessel, which together with the pre-outfitting gave us a short installation time. All those factors contributed to a competitive price.”
Though there’s no doubt that scrubbers work, they also involve a substantial investment. That led Finland’s family-owned Langh Ship to develop a scrubber of its own, the decision was made a little easier by the fact that another family-owned company has 40 years’ experience in cleaning washing waters.
The resulting product was successfully tested over an extended period on one of Langth’s own ships, the M/S Laura, and received final class approval from GL in August 2014. All of Langh’s five vessels have now been fitted with the scrubber and last year a hybrid version was installed on Bore Shipping’s M/V Bore Song.
“It has lived up to our expectations: minimum sludge handling, very clean outgoing water and in that respect minimum impact on the environment,” said Jörgen Mansnerus, VP, Marine Management at Bore Ltd.
Scrubbers could become less expensive as the result of a pilot project developed by Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) researchers Carlos Dorao and Maria Fernandino.
Called the Lynx Separator, the technology now being examined for possible use in marine exhaust gas scrubbers was originally developed for use in the natural gas industry and involves using a steel sponge along with centrifugal force to remove the fluid from a gas stream, offering a brand new solution for the gas industry.
In the Lynx Separator, wet gas flows through the separator. A tubular metal sponge spins rapidly so the liquid is separated from the gas and thrown to the side and down, allowing dry gas to stream up to where it’s needed.
The Research Council of Norway’s Innovation Program MAROFF (Maritime activities and offshore operations) has now funded a pilot project to examine the possibility of applying the separator technology to cleaning ships’ exhaust emissions from ships andetheoretical calculations and testing show promising results
BALLAST WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Another major focus of compliance concern for shipowners is, of course, ballast water management. Needless to say, most of the major players in the Scandinavian marine equipment sectors have horses in this race. It’s just to soon to pick any winners given the fact that no system has yet gained full U.S. Type Approval.
As this was written, Norway’s Optimarin was claiming to be on the brink of the coveted approval and was pleased when the U.S. Coast Guard told manufacturers of ultraviolet (UV) based BWMS that it will not accept the Most Probable Number (MPN) testing method in its approval process. The MPN methodology evaluates organisms on the basis of “viable/unviable,” with most UV systems depositing “unviable” organisms back into the water – meaning they are still alive but cannot reproduce. The USCG said that the FDA/CMFDA test, which judges life forms as “living/dead,” must be the standard for approval.
Optimarin says the decision is good news.
The Coast Guard has told UV system manufacturers that it will not accept the Most Probable Number (MPN) testing method in its approval process. The MPN methodology evaluates organisms on the basis of “viable/unviable,” with most UV systems depositing “unviable” organisms back into the water – meaning they are still alive but cannot reproduce.
“This is a clear indication to the industry that USCG wants absolute certainty with regard to standards – they do not want living organisms deposited in their territory,” comments Tore Andersen, Optimarin’s CEO. “MPN is acceptable for IMO, but that won’t be any consolation to shipowners with global fleets that want the flexibility of sailing in and out of U.S. waters.”
He says that Optimarin, which has over 20 years of industry experience and installed the world’s first commercial BWT system in 2000, is the only UV manufacturer that is currently within “touching distance” of USCG approval.
Its technology successfully satisied the FDA/CFMDA criteria during testing last year. Further tests in other water salinities are scheduled for spring 2016, after which point approval is expected later this year.
Andersen says the system’s power is the key to its efficacy. “Each of our system lamps has a 35 kW capacity, which is huge for a UV system. That power instantly kills invasive organisms and that’s exactly what USCG wants to see,” he says