Eco- friendly tanker
Sauter Carbon Offset Design has released details of a VLCC design, which the company claims will be the largest and ‘greenest’ Post-Panamax vessel, and which will provide the most economic form of crude oil transport.
The concept, known as ‘Emax Deliverance’ is described as “a DynaWing solar hybrid supertanker”. The designer claims that the “superior fluid dynamic Emax” vessel will obtains half of her power from LNG and the other half from advanced solar and wind power technology .The ship, of 2million barrel/330,000dwt capacity is designed specifically for the newly enlarged locks of the Panama Canal which will accommodate vessels with a maximum length of 426m, beam of 54m and draught of 18m
The hull is designed for low drag, and incorporates a twin-screw propulsion system with twin CRP hybrid propulsion pods reduces fuel consumption and GHG emissions by a claimed 35%. An additional 20%to 30% reduction could be achieved through the 500,000m2 DynaWing boom furling sails and 15% to 20% more by bringing the Solbian solar power generating array into use. Further features that are expected to make a total 75% reduction possible are the Mitsubishi bubble hull and the Wartsila coded LNG hybrid power system.
Compared with a conventional 330,000dwt VLCC, which has a 30MW diesel power requirement, the Emax Solar Hybrid design would need a total 20MW power, of which 10MW would be derived from LNG and 10MW from sun and wind power. The LNG power source would be Wartsila LLC Dual Fuel engines equal to 10MW, employing the LLC (low loss concept) technology for high efficiency, low exhaust gas emissions, fuel flexibility and fuel economy over the entire engine operating range.
The DynaWing sails, which could provide between 4MW and 8MW4 to 8MWs, use hybrid wing-mast and mainsail combination technology to deliver a dynamic range of power options from a full array of sails with wingsail emulated efficiency, to a gradual reduction of all sails culminating in wing-mast reefing. The SunPower Solbian Solar Panels could deliver up to 4MW. Solbian marine solar panels claim the highest-rated efficiency and a 25-year warranted lifetime. The energy harnessed from the sun is stored in a 5MW Lithium ion storage system to allow for zero-carbon docking and power for all hotel services .
It is calculated that the Deliverance project can save 110,000 tons of CO2 per year , which approximates to a reduction 3 million tons of CO2 over a 25-year service life. The ship carries a price premium of about 15% compared with a conventional 330,000dwt VLCC.
Designer Richard Sauter commented: “A solar hybrid Post Panamax VLCC presents us with a major win-win scenario, for apart from safeguarding the planet, oil companies can look forward to savings of up to $60million a year on the purchase of fuel, which at today’s prices not only pays for the Emax Supertanker in under four years, but increases their earnings over her service life by over $1.5 billion
Source: Sauter Carbon Offset Design