Louis Dreyfus Armateurs looks to wind power to drive fuel savings

Lining up for sails

Customers appear to be queuing up for eSails. In March, the Netherlands’ Amasus Shipping booked two 17-m high eSails for a shortsea general cargo vessel, 91-m long, 2,850-dwt EEMS Traveller. It will be the second time round for Amasus Shipping – in late 2021 the group installed the system on La Naumon, a 44-year-old general cargo vessel.

“We feel that wind should be used for all our benefit,” said Amasus Shipping managing director Arend-Jan Rozema. “Reducing energy consumption by multiple techniques is the best pathway towards sustainable shipping.”

On the basis of previous data, Bound4blue appears extremely confident of the returns. “The suction sails are expected to reduce the fuel costs of EEMS Traveller by up to 30% in favourable trade routes,” it claimed.

LDA keenly anticipates crunching the numbers. Asked whether the group had conducted any sums on the payback period, Mr. Barret said, “This is extremely difficult to answer as there are many parameters in the equation. I can say that our company has done some analysis together with Bound4blue on the trading of Ville de Bordeaux. The payback period is dependent on the price of fuel, price of tonne of CO₂ and the regulatory framework in the years to come among other factors. For now, the idea is more to collect tangible results on this concept of sail for this type of vessel on a specific route.”

Ville de Bordeaux is LDA’s 18-year-old 154-m long, 21,528-dwt roro leased to Airbus.

Bound4blue’s eSail is a proven technology. Technically, it is a type of wind-assisted propulsion system that is based on control of an active boundary layer in a way that produces a suction effect. When suction isn’t activated, the eSail acts solely as a drag, actually slowing down the vessel like any other on-deck inert infrastructure. (A tilting mechanism is optional). However, when the suction is triggered, it requires only a small amount of air to generate exponential amounts of lift with little drag. The air is sucked in, sticking the airflow to the sail. Far more efficient than a conventional soft sail, according to Bound4blue, the eSail delivers six to seven times more lift.

Power consumption is small. And in engineering terms, the system is remarkably simple. “There is no mechanical complexity – no inertial loads, vibrations or constant movement – which ensures simple and reliable operations,” explained the Spanish group. “It’s also lightweight and compact.”

The eSails emerged from a joint effort called Greening the Blue project partly funded by the EU. Apart from Bound4blue, which was only established in 2014, the other member is Spanish shipyard Astander.

According to a study by Bound4blue, the annual fuel savings are clearly worth having. On a 300-m long and 50-m wide bulker of 210,000 dwt with between four and six eSails installed, its calculations show the operator would bank between €975,000 (US$1.1M) and €1.4M (US$1.5M) a year in fuel savings on a Cape Town to Montevideo route of 1,862 nautical miles at a service speed of around 14 knots. On a route of 4,105 nautical miles between Seattle and Yokohama, the bulker’s owners could save between €1.4M (US$1.5M) and €2.1M (US$2.2M).

At the other end of the scale, a 37-m long fishing vessel with just one eSail installed should trim between €63,500 (US$68,100) and €88,022 (US$94,430) off fuel costs annually. That’s based on 330 days at sea, assuming 130 hours per trip, depending on whether the vessel is working the Chile coast or the North Atlantic.

Interest in harnessing wind power has been growing steadily as the benefits become apparent. In May 2022, for example, ferry operator Scandlines had its second Norsepower rotor sail installed in two years, this time on hybrid-powered Berlin.

According to Scandlines, which operates out of the Port of Rostock, the device has trimmed CO₂ emissions by an average of 4% and by as much as 20% in the most favourable wind conditions.

With fuel being easily the biggest cost in shipping – and the wind being free, systems such as Bound4blue’s could have a big future.