During his presentation at GREEN4SEA Conference, Mr. Aleksey Nikulin, Chief Technology Officer, Humble Energy, noted that a greener and cheaper fuel alternative is available to the shipping industry using current technology. Humble Energy’s initiative builds on their extensive Energy from Waste expertise and research into solid fuel propulsion systems that use Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) Energy Pellets as an energy source to solve the MARPOL issue facing the shipping industry. This technology will cut SOx, NOx and GHG emissions and dramatically reduce fuel bills.
We hear great things about LNG and LPG, however there other options as well; cheaper and greener fuels are available to shipping industry, but these alternatives require an open mind. The cheapest energy source available to us is actually man-made, it is not a fossil fuel: Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) Energy Pellets, are currently available free of charge and free onboard.
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If we take waste as a source of energy and if we prepare it in such a way that it is usable and useful, then we can have free energy source available to shipping industry and additionally free. Not only free, but also with substantial environmental benefits.
It is a fuel which comes in several forms and is produced from domestic waste and producible commercial waste is essentially 40% Green House Gas reduction potential waste. In particular:
- It is biogenic carbon, so it actually reduces carbon emissions;
- It has 0.3% Sulphur, so you won’t need scrubbers or abatement;
- It has tested low NOx emissions when combusted using standard arrangement, compared to compression ignition engines. It is simply like going back to steamboat. The modern legislation or limits for shore based power generation are about 100 times more stringent than IMO Tier III, so if you take their land-based technology, you will be able to contain this 500 times without much problem.
SRF Energy Pallets have the following desirable handling characteristics:
- Mechanically stable with standardized precise: Standard diameter and length for easy flow through various conveying systems;
- High-density which allows you to have decent storage area for more energy;
- Similar Calorific Value to LNG: 21MJ/kg and it is comparable to coal;
- Tolerance to wet environments, a simple proof that pallets survive in invoice environments, that they are not scared like biomass pallets to expose to rain moisture;
- Biologically stable: I have got a folding in my hands produced 5 years ago and it is still here, it does not end with all the problems people commonly associate with waste, like smell.
In addition, it is widely available. Land-based generation has been using waste to generate fuels for decades. The pallets are widely produced in Japan, Western Canada and US. An interesting fact is that developed countries generate approximately 1 tonne of waste per person per year and approximately 20% of this waste can be converted into SRF Energy Pellets. World Bank estimates OECD population at 1.29 billion, meaning that nearly 250 million tonnes of pellets can be produced per year, compared with 250,000 million tonnes of fuel that world consumes. I am not saying that it can substitute every single barrel of oil that we need for shipping, but it is a meaningful amount of energy available to us and we should choose to open our minds and embrace it.
The land-based technology has evolved and it’s time to look at it again, given the huge cost differential that exists between the energy that we have got available to us as a society right now and the price of bunker, especially after 2020.
Lloyds Register has confirmed that owing to the strong legacy of Coal-Fired ships, classification of the SRF Energy Pellet ships should be quite straightforward, with Unmanned Machinery Space class conditions being most relevant.
The complexity of switching fuel is huge: You might be saving 40% of your global costs, but not having any fuel cost: What does this say to your revenue, maintenance appreciation, capital repayments? The total industry fuel bill is in excess of 150 billion dollars a year, so I am saying, some of this fuel can be worked out. How do we achieve it?
The only way to achieve it is through collaboration. No company will take on a project of re-inventing ships, so what we do believe is forming an innovative collaborative network, with players coming from the shipowner’s background, Port Authorities, boiler and turbine manufacturers, and research bodies.
Why Collaborate?
- Common pressures: Marpol SOx and NOx regulations;
- Common interest: avoid regulation on carbon emissions.
What are benefits of Collaboration?
- Resource and expertise pooling;
- Lower individual cost;
- Green PR benefits;
- Reduced “reputational” risks;
- Access to Grant programmes.
Relevant basic principles have been observed in land-based technologies concluding that it would be easy to modernize this type of arrangement and make it work in the modern world. But we were in dialogue with industry stakeholders and some of the largest commercial shipping companies in the world and what they say is they know others will come in to build a prototype, so we do need to get a tank demonstration, we do need to get a new prototype model. And this is what we are starting to do and I announce creation of a new collaborative effort in the industry to give this exciting opportunity a chance.
The big thing is what work programs we have got in our hands in this adoption of new marinization of a modern combustion technology and adoption of this technology to the operational constraints of the shipping industry. We listed what it was enabler architect to see what implications od such a big technological change will depend on the layout of the vessel. To be specific, the designer vessel has been limited to some extent by the direct driving shaft arrangement. If you generated engine in one side of the ship and if you can pump by the steam electricity to the propulsion unit of the back of the ship, this potentially changes everything and you can have a different layout for fuel storage, for where you generate and redistribute energy for propulsion. So many other things need to be considered obviously.
Collaborative structure stages
Summarizing the technology, we have established some key elements, with legal advice and tax advice to cover the structure collaborative approach.
Consortium recruitment and legal information
- 33% of Equity allocated to Humble and confirmed investors;
- 67% is available in exchange for funding commitments;
- Majority will determine priorities for research.
Phase I (3-12 months).
- Engineering across all Work Programmes;
- All research validated by partner Universities;
- Approval in Principal from Class Society.
Phase II (12-36 months)
- Demonstrator vessel being built or converted;
- Sea trials and tests;
- Improvements and fine tuning.
Commercialization (3+ years)
- Suitable routes identified;
- Consortium members given priority access to technology;
- Technology Licences offered to non-members.
From our experience, the time that was taken for the solid fuel coal-fired vessels to be brought to market, after the oil crisis, was less than 4 years, from the conception to the brand new vessels built and people to productive use. So this is not a technology purely theoretical nor a technology particularly complicated, but an update of well-proven and tested technology which I believe can save you money and make it easy for you to comply with regulations at the same time.
Above text is an edited article of Aleksey Nikulin’s presentation during the 2018 GREEN4SEA Conference
You may view his video presentation herebelow
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
Aleksey Nikulin, Chief Technology Officer, Humble Energy Ltd. Aleksey is an experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record of innovation in hospitality, renewable energy and waste management. He started, raised money for and sold two businesses and is expecting financial close on the third one. Prior to starting his own businesses he has worked for Citibank and Dresdner Bank. He has a rich international background and impeccable education
