While developments around zero-carbon fuels are gathering steam, one of the world’s largest shipowners is looking to an ancient maritime source of power – wind – to advance its decarbonisation efforts
Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) is one of a quartet of Japanese maritime companies that will study the use of sails mounted on the existing cargo-handling cranes of dry bulk carriers to reduce fuel consumption and lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The joint R&D effort brings together MOL, MOL Drybulk, Oshima Shipbuilding and Iknow Machinery Co Ltd, which aims to mount the triangular-shaped Iknow Delta Sail on ships’ existing cargo-handling cranes and similar equipment to harness offshore winds to provide supplemental propulsion.
Initial studies will be carried out on bulkers, wood chip carriers, and multi-purpose vessels operated by MOL Drybulk, formed in January as a subsidiary of MOL. MOL Drybulk integrates the former Mitsui OSK Kinkai Ltd’s fleet and MOL’s woodchip and dry bulk business under one umbrella organisation. MOL Drybulk oversees a fleet of 200 vessels, ranging in size from 10,000 to 100,000 dwt.
This latest wind propulsion effort is in addition to MOL’s Wind Challenger Project, which will see a 99,000-dwt coal carrier under construction at Oshima Shipbuilding fitted with a telescoping hard sail. Set for delivery in 2022, the panamax-size coal carrier will operate under a charter with Tohoku Electric Power Co. Using the wind-assist technology, MOL expects to lower GHG emissions by 5% on the Japan-Australia route and 8% on the Japan-North America West Coast route compared with a similar-sized conventional vessel.
Using wind and hydrogen
Through a separate joint corporate-academic partnership that includes ClassNK, MOL will push the ambitions of the Wind Challenger further, combining wind propulsion sailing technology and hydrogen technology. Called the Wind Hunter Project, the partners will apply sail technology, fuel cells and hydrogen generated on board by an electrolyser. Power for the electrolyser will be generated by a submerged power generation turbine. During periods of strong wind, it will produce power by rotating turbines in water, using some of the vessel’s propulsion to generate electric power.
Using electric power generated by the power generation turbine, the electrolyser would release hydrogen from water molecules through electrolysis. This hydrogen would be absorbed in a hydrogen storage alloy for storage on board during periods of strong winds. During periods of low wind, the storage alloy would release this hydrogen to the fuel cells to create power for the ship’s electric propulsion.
The project team plans to study the application of supplying hydrogen generated at sea for onshore use.
As a first step, the project team will conduct a feasibility study analysing the concept using a sailing yacht to verify the function and performance of a series of cycle operations (ie, turbine power generation, hydrogen generation/storage and fuel cell-related propulsion). The next step will be to scale-up the technology for demonstration in a larger vessel.
International Windship Association (IWSA) general secretary Gavin Allwright, who spoke at Riviera Maritime Media’s Practical application of wind technology on tankers webinar, believes ship operators can “reduce carbon emissions by up to 30% for retrofit solutions and significantly higher for optimised newbuild ships.” The webinar was produced by Tanker Shipping & Trade and sponsored by Anemoi and Wärtsilä as part of Tanker Shipping & Trade Webinar Week in July. “It’s clear that wind must be fully integrated into the decarbonisation pathways for shipping – it is an abundant, widely available and free energy source waiting to be harnessed,” added Mr Allwright.
Based on its analysis, wind propulsion provider Norsepower believes the very large ore carrier (VLOC) Sea Zhoushan will achieve an efficiency gain of up to 8% and a consequent reduction of up to 3,400 tonnes of CO2 per year. In May, Norsepower reported installing five tilting rotor sails on the 325,000-dwt VLOC, owned by Pan Ocean Ship Management and chartered to Brazilian mining giant Vale.
Using wind and LNG
In July, fellow Japanese shipowner K-Line announced plans to install an automated kite system that uses wind power to assist in ship’s propulsion on its first LNG-fuelled capesize bulk carrier. Developed by Airseas – a spin-off of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus – the kite system called Seawing is mounted on the bow of the vessel and is deployed by simple operation from the bridge. K-Line’s expectations are that Seawing can greatly contribute to the reduction of the environmental load associated with the ship’s operation. The bulk carrier can reduce emissions by more than 20%, about 5,200 tonnes of CO2 annually, according to the Japanese shipowner.
Implementing wind power technologies and other energy saving devices is one of the five initiatives envisioned by MOL under its MOL Group Environmental Vision 2.1 strategy to “achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2050” announced in June. The other four initiatives are adopting clean alternative fuels, bolstering energy efficiency via real-time monitoring of vessel operations, building business models to enable net-zero GHG emissions such as introducing internal carbon-pricing, and expanding offshore windfarm, ammonia and hydrogen projects.
K-Line and MOL along with NYK Line have inked long-term charter agreements for LNG-fuelled capesize bulkers with Japanese steel producer JFE Steel Corp.
Designed by Japan’s Nihon Shipyard, the bulk carriers will be built by Japan Marine United (JMU) and Imabari Shipyard for delivery in 2024 and 2025. With a length overall of 299.9 m, beam of 50 m, draught of 18.4 m and deadweight of 210,000 tonnes, each capesize bulk carrier will transport coal and iron ore in the Pacific trade for JFE.
Propulsion for each vessel will be supplied by a WinGD X-DF 2.0 dual-fuel two-stroke, low-pressure Otto-cycle engine to comply with IMO’s Tier III NOx emissions regulations. Burning LNG, the bulk carrier will emit 99% less SOx, 85% less NOx, and 25 to 30% less CO2 compared with conventional heavy fuel oil-burning vessels.
Additionally, due to careful consideration of the equipment and arrangement of the LNG fuel tank and LNG fuel supply system, this ship will maintain the loadable quantity and cargo hold capacity of conventional bulk carriers of the same size despite the increased weight of additional equipment.
In 2018, NYK and JMU received approval in principle for a 200,000-dwt LNG-fuelled bulk carrier from ClassNK.
As a result of the combination of the ship design and the use of LNG as a fuel, each bulk carrier will be able to lower its Energy Efficient Design Index (EEDI) by about 40%, exceeding the Phase 0 to Phase 3 reduction of 30% – a reduction that had been considered difficult for a large bulk carrier to attain.
NYK Line said the ship’s design can contribute to the IMO strategy of a 40% improvement in the global shipping industry’s fuel efficiency by 2030 and anticipates having an LNG bunkering system in place by 2024 serving the ship when it calls at ports in the Chugoku region of Japan.
NYK is positioning LNG fuel as a ‘bridge solution’ until future zero-emissions ships use marine fuels that have a lower environmental impact, such as hydrogen and ammonia, are available.
Meanwhile, MOL plans to increase the number of LNG-fuelled vessels in its fleet to about 90 by 2030. It aims to further reduce GHG emissions by adopting more clean fuels, building upon LNG-fuelled vessel projects already underway with this latest newbuild.
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