Tag: CO2

Europe has a major role to play in driving the maritime industry forward, said Tor Svensen, CEO of DNV GL - Maritime, in his keynote speech on innovation at the European Shipping Week in Brussels. Svensen outlined three priority areas that will drive shipping in the decades to come: Sustainability and environmentally friendly technologies, Big Data and connected ship solutions as well as a new safety mindset across the whole maritime industry in order to improve its safety track record. “Today, 70 per cent of the world’s fleet is controlled from Europe. Our strong maritime clusters give us the opportunity to drive innovation – by making a continued investment in research & development, stimulating joint industry projects, focusing on building competitive strengths as well as bringing capital, academia, investors and industry together and creating industry-government partnerships. Let us use this opportunity and be thought leaders”, he emphasized. In many of the most technology-intensive sectors of the industry Europe already lead the way, he noted. European equipment manufacturers hold a global market share of 41.5 per cent - and in the fields of subsea, deep-water and technology for harsh environments European technology and know-how is world-leading. The same applied to the ...

Maersk has recently published its Annual Report for 2014 estimating that result is USD 831 million higher than 2013. This was achieved by lower unit cost and increasing volumes while the rates decreased by 1,6%. The lower unit cost is the result of a better vessel utilisation and network efficiencies. Highlights of the Annual Report USD 2,341 million profit - a 55% improvement compared to 2013 (USD 1,510m)  11.6% return on invested capital (7.4%) Volumes increased by 6.8%, average rate decreased by 1.6% Unit cost decreased by is 4.3%  Underlying result for 2015 expected to be higher than 2014 (USD 2.2 billion) Global container shipping demand in 2015 expected to grow by 3-5%, nominal supply by 5-7% Slow-steaming maintained in low fuel price scenario Søren Skou, CEO of Maersk Line commented: ''“I am very satisfied with our 2014 result. Our return on invested capital is also very satisfactory and above our medium and long-term targets of 8.5% and 10% respectively. We have achieved this on the backdrop of low market growth and rates under pressure. We have successfully managed our capacity and reduced our costs. I believe 2014 proves that we have the right strategy in place,” The low oil ...

Dr Pierre C. Sames from DNV GL introduced the Vessels for the Future initiative at the European Shipping Week in Brussels Looking ahead to 2020 and beyond, both maritime and inland waterways will be under ever increasing pressure, as we use them for transport, recreation and commercially. At European Shipping week (ESW), Dr Pierre C. Sames, Chairman of the European Research Association and Director of Maritime Technology, Research and Development at classification society DNV GL, introduced a new initiative - Vessels for the Future - which aims to improve shipping's safety record, sustainability and global competitiveness. Launched in November 2014, over 50 companies, research institutes, academic organizations and interested associations have already signed up to take part in the initiative to work towards a more sustainable European transport system. "Aiming at a private public partnership is important not only as it allows us to have a coordinated research, development and implementation (RDI) programme which covers both vessels and waterborne operations, but it demonstrates a clear commitment from all stakeholders to meet the ambitious goals of the initiative," said Dr Sames. The initiative focuses on the three key areas for the maritime transport cluster: safe and efficient waterborne transport and competitiveness ...

The new IEA Energy Atlas offers panoramas on every aspect of energy on a global basis and for 138 individual countries, with interactive maps and customisable charts that detail and compare a host of data based on the Agency’s authoritative statistics. Available on the IEA website’s statistics area, the Energy Atlas provides its wealth of data in 40 varying map views across eight topics: electricity and four fuels – coal, natural gas, oil and renewables – as well as energy balances and indicators plus CO2 emissions from fuel combustion, all for every year from 1973 through 2012. “Last year the IEA launched an animated Sankey flow representation of the evolution of the energy balance of countries over the last 40 years,” explained Jean-Yves Garnier, Head of the IEA Energy Data Centre, which produced the atlas. “We received a lot of compliments from policy makers, analysts and the public, but we also had many requests for more visualisation, including mapping of the world energy situation and the possibility of comparing countries. The Energy Atlas is an attempt to help everyone to better understand the complex world of energy.” On the webpage for each of the eight topics, a world map graphically illustrates ...

All shipping companies calling at EU ports will, for the first time, have to measure and publicly report ships’ energy performance, including carbon emissions, under a law approved by the European Parliament’s environment committee and EU environment ministers. But the regulation, which still requires the support of the Parliament plenary, only monitors fuel consumption instead of directly reducing it, and only covers CO2 and not air pollutants like SO2 or NOx. Ship operators will be required to publicly report three metrics to measure the energy performance of ships: the theoretical energy performance of the ship known as the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI); its real-world fuel consumption; and its energy efficiency. The more cargo a ship can carry using the same amount of fuel, the more efficient and cheaper it is to run.. T&E says that while the law is weak, the publication of ships’ real energy efficiency will provide shipping users with transparent data to identify the most efficient ships and practices, and hopefully trigger a cycle of increased competition among operators. The environment committee vote and the Council of Ministers’ decision comes as global air pollution from shipping in ports is projected to quadruple by 2050 from current ...

The Port Authority is studying the possibilities of using an internal pipeline network to move CO₂ around for applications inside and outside the port. A feasibility study is being carried out on behalf of Antwerp Port Authority to determine the possibilities of using an internal pipeline network to move CO₂ around the port for various applications inside and outside it. The study is being partly financed from EU subsidies as part of the Interreg project entitled “CO₂ and CH₄ as resources for regional development.” The Interreg project looks at the availability of CO₂, the possibilities for CO₂ purification and transport, and CO₂ applications now and in the future. The port of Antwerp is responsible for nearly half of all industrial CO₂-equivalent emissions in Flanders, because among other things it is home to the largest integrated chemical and petrochemical cluster in Europe. On the other hand this means that the port has great potential for supplying CO₂ for use in various applications. Creating added value from CO₂ in the port of Antwerp  CO₂ is a useful raw material and the basis for all life, but for some time now it has been at the centre of a wide-ranging debate in society at large. ...

A new research collaboration between A*STAR’s IHPC, Sembcorp Marine Ltd, University of Glasgow and UGS aims to  make a ship’s voyage more smooth sailing by improving its hydrodynamics and energy efficiency. The four organisations signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate and develop new hull designs for large ocean-going vessels and make them more environmentally friendly. Under the three-year MoU, IHPC, Sembcorp Marine Ltd, University of Glasgow and UGS will use computational modelling and visualisation technologies to design vessels with improved hydrodynamics for better fuel efficiency. In addition, they will collaborate and innovate on features to reduce harmful exhaust emissions and discharges by enhancing the vessel’s scrubber and ballast treatment systems. Currently, maritime transport carries about 90 percent of all international trade and accounts for three percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Under this research collaboration, Sembcorp Marine and IHPC will analyse and improve gas abatement technology, using an enhanced scrubber design to address the emission of harmful gases like sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrous oxides (NOx), particulate matter and greenhouse gases, in particular CO2, from the ship’s heavy fossil fuel burning combustion engines. Such designs and technology are also needed to meet the International Maritime Organization’s new 2015 standards on ...

Shipowners with EU-flagged vessels who incur unnecessary operating costs need to ensure that their onboard refrigeration units are leak-tight, says WSS’s Svenn Jacobsen. The new EU Regulations on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (F-Gas) look to fundamentally change the use of refrigeration gases onshore and at sea, with estimated cost increases at 5-10 times their current level. Jacobsen said: “At the moment, testing for gas leaks is purely a maintenance issue, but the impact of leaks from land-based and ship sources has grabbed the attention of regulators. In short, owners need to start paying attention because the future costs of compliance will far outstrip what owners are paying for these gases today.” Refrigeration gas is a commodity like motor fuel but is not a consumable and therefore should not need replacing. Jacobsen says owners who are paying to recharge gas systems should recognise they have a fault and take action; “Owners need to be asking themselves, are my new ships going to be delivered with gases that are compliant over their trading life and how can we remain compliant on existing tonnage once the regulations come into force?” Adopted by the Council of the European Union earlier this year, the regulations are specifically ...

When Detroit Brasil Ltda., a local shipbuilder in Brazil, was looking for a partner to achieve reductions in fuel expenditure and CO2 emissions, they turned to GE. GE’s Power Conversion business announced that they will provide dynamic positioning (DP) and vessel control systems to equip the next generation platform supply vessels (PSV4500), currently under construction at the Detroit shipyard to the Brazilian shipbuilder Starnav Serviços Marítimos Ltda. These vessels, the first of which will be commissioned and will be put into operation by Starnav in 2015 on behalf of Brazilian oil giant Petrobras, will target fuel efficiencies as one of their primary aims. GE’s control system incorporates an innovative Energy Efficient mode, part of GE’s ecomagination portfolio. GE has developed a highly advanced predictive control algorithm which predicts future motion and updates the thrust demands if the vessel is calculated to move close to or outside the operator permitted area. This makes for fewer small, unnecessary corrections, thus reducing fuel consumption, emissions and equipment maintenance requirements. Additionally GE’s vessel automation and control system, featuring a novel fuel monitoring, recording and advisory system, grants operators greater insight into fuel consumption across various operational scenarios and cumulatively across the entire mission profile. ...