Dr. John Kokarakis, Technical Director, HBSA Zone, Bureau Veritas makes an assessment of 2021 and shares his message for the new year across the global maritime community.

In our special column for May, we are glad to host an interview with Dr. John Kokarakis, Vice President Technology & Business Development, Bureau Veritas, who advises us to always search for knowledge and focus on a specific area and keep learning all the time about it.

During the 2020 SAFETY4SEA Limassol Forum, Dr. John Kokarakis, Vice President Technology & Business Development, Bureau Veritas, discussed ammonia as a potential solution for carbon-free shipping. During his presentation, Dr. Kokarakis presented the advantages of ammonia on the one hand, and the challenges on the other, adding that difficulties around ammonia can be controlled by technical and regulatory options.

During the latest GREEN4SEA Athens Forum, Dr. John Kokarakis, Technical Director – Hellenic-Black Sea & Adriatic Zone, Bureau Veritas, explained how Vessel Performance Monitoring can open the path of reducing GHG emissions. This, Dr. Kokarakis explained, can happen as Vessel Performance Monitoring answers critical questions, such as what are the operating conditions of the vessel? Also, are company’s procedures properly followed? Answering such questions will eventually lead to a better operation of the vessel, as it will define when corrective actions are needed.

During his presentation at the last GREEN4SEA Conference, Dr. John Kokarakis, Chairman, Greek Section, SNAME, describes the possible reality regarding alternative fuels after the 2020 sulphur cap. Mr. Kokarakis notes that the future economy will be multi-fueled, which is why ship owners must make the right choice for their fleet.

During the 219 SAFETY4SEA Cyprus Conference, Dr. John Kokarakis, Director Technical Business Development, HBSA Zone, Bureau Veritas, provided an in-depth overview of all the environmentally-friendly marine fuel solutions for compliance with the 2020 sulphur cap.

Dr. John Kokarakis, Vice President, Bureau Veritas makes an assessment of the important issues that shipping faced in 2016 and wishes industry in 2017 to be adequately prepared and reinforced to face the need to comply with the plethora of new rules and regulations awaiting around the corner.

  John Kokarakis, VP Engineering, Bureau Veritas presentation during the 2015 GREEN4SEA Forum The tsunami of emission related regulations and the need for environmental friendliness also dictates the utilization of alternate fuels less polluting than HFO. The star player is LNG but  not the only player though. Future ships will burn a variety of fuels; hydrogen, synthetic fuels and biofuels will be chosen depending on the characteristic of the ship.   Nowadays, we are facing an utterly confusing and conflicting tsunami of fuel regulations. Fuel is the most expensive OPEX item and plays an important role in defining the future of the shipping industry. The drivers for new marine fuels are: regulations, financial considerations and available technology. In the future, there is going to be coexistence of multiple fuels. Be aware that the wrong fuel choice has major impact on commercial performance of the vessel. Pioneer owners may be confronted with unforeseen technical issues costing time and money. However shipping thrives through innovation and technology development. The fact that the charterer pays the fuel removes the motivation from the owners to use alternative fuels. Lack of bunkering facilities and supply chains are barriers for the introduction of new “exotic” fuels. Due to...

There are many critical elements in relation to the design, selection and installation of BWTS. The process is a quadric-modal one which starts with the selection and the design study, followed by detailed study and installation. However, we will confront a lot of challenges in the process. What is critical is what lies below the iceberg. Had the Convention been validated tomorrow, we would need to do 40-50 retrofits every day until the end of 2017. Having that number in mind, it seems that we should not over emphasize the selection process. Unfortunately, we don't have feedback from BWTS already installed. We are dealing with a case of public pressure putting the regulations ahead of technology. We can apply advanced selection techniques like fuzzy- logic or multi-criteria decision analysis, or simpler statistical grading of  questions which can be grouped  related to technical, health and safety , financial, operation, installation and maintenance considerations. The one million question is '' are we going to have the time to go through this grading and selection process?'' The installation questions we have is where to place the system, how to integrate it with  the remaining machinery and what to do. We have to forget...