Page 17 - IB AUG 2017

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Photo: Marine Insight
Shipping
Shipping can’t afford to slow steam on climate
Wind power ... this cargo ship is towed by a large kite The Flettner rotor - invention ahead of its time ... seen The Flettner rotor technology was adopted by Enercon
across the ocean. Photo: Marine Insight here on the Buckau in 1924. Photo: USP on its E Ship 1 in 2010. Photo: Enercon
tors which gave the ship an aerodynamic power a downstream steam turbine, which and put up an online toolkit to assist island
lift using the magnus effect, propelling drives the four Enercon-developed Flettner states wanting to decarbonise shipping.
it forward. The ship had pillars which rotors. The E Ship 1, which has a payload Dr Nuttall believes the Green Climate
had vertical rotors. As the wind blows capability of 80-120 tonnes is based in Fund should back such projects as they
across the spinning rotors, they develop Dublin. Time will tell whether Willhofft’s could make a profound difference: “Small
lift similar to that of an airfoil shape of a prediction will come true and the technol- investments can have a global impact.”
conventional sail. ogy is more widely used. “Proven advances in technology show
In a review of that technology by former Wingships major fuel/emissions savings are available
professor of mechanical engineering at Another technology under the scrutiny at attractive investment rates of return
Columbia University, FO WIllhofft, in a of researchers is the wingship. and a minimal investment in research and
paper gien to the American Institute and South Korea has built a protoype of development.”
reported in the New York Times on May this craft that is something in between an Commitment to a network of green ship-
3, 1925, he said: “The outstanding fact airplane and ship. It that has been certified ping pilot projects would form the basis
is that rotating cylinders produce about by Lloyd’s registry for 500km range and for research into a cleaner maritime sector
10 times the propulsive force as canvas can operate in 3.5m sea state and 35knots across the developing world.
sails of the same area and that the actual head wind Currently, slow steaming — adopted
results obtained in the trial trips of the According to Dr Nuttal the next step is by many companies in reaction to over-
Buckau confirmed the laboratory results to undertake an independent verification tonnaging and the lack of growth in world
with remarkable exactness. study of the technical and economic cost- trade following the financial crisis — has
“All that one can predict with certainty, benefits in the Marshalls, Kiribati and shown itself to be a significant method of
basing the estimate with actual results ob- Tuvalu. “Then we would need to undertake reducing carbon.
tained on the Buckau and on meteorologi- proof of concept trials, Marshalls has asked This is, after all, a way of also cutting
cal statistics, is that a motorship equipped to do this at the Micronesian Sustainable operating costs, although clearly slower
with rotors will save not less than 25 per Transport Centre.” journey times can under¬mine competi-
cent on fuel, on the average, year after year, Its makers told Islands Business that tiveness and trim profitability at times too.
for the average trade route. I consider the wingship can have up to a 40-tonne There are a host of other relatively low-
the Flettner rotor ship as a link only in payload, carry 50 people, travel up to 100 cost ways shipowers can help themselves,
the chain of evolution of the harnessing knots and has a high fuel consumption such as bulbous bows, innovative propel-
of wind power.” efficiency. lers and anti-fouling paints.
In 2010, Enercon, a wind turbine manu- Dr Nuttal said island states must con- But this will not be enough. More re-
facturer, launched the E Ship 1 which uses tinue to be encouraged to invest in low- search and development cash and working
Flettner rotors, giving the ship 30-40 per cost shippings projects for answers to this models are urgently needed to find other
cent saving in fuel costs at 16 knots. problem. In 2015 UNCTAD, the principal ways of improving energy efficiency and
In addition to the rotors, the ship is organ of the United Nations General As- developing new fuels, said Dr Nuttal.
powered by diesel engines driving twin sembly dealing with trade, investment, and There is still the ultimate threat of im-
propellers. Exhaust gas from the engines development issues, asked USP to prepare posing taxes and other non-market-based
solutions that are outside the control of
the industry.
For now Philp, Patai and Dr Nuttal
continue to advocate and educate those
willing to listen.
Slow steaming on climate change is not
an option for them. Neither should it be for
the shipping industry.
q ilaitia.turagabeci@gmail.com
- Additional material by the USP’s Centre for
Above the surface ... the wingship travels about 3m Like the big boys, inter-island ferries in the Pacific also Sustainable Sea Transport Research
above water. Photo: Wingships Inc practise slow steaming but it does not always work out.
Islands Business, August 2017 17