A Sailing Revival?
With all the justifiable doom and gloom around this week’s release of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report I thought it would be good to think about what changes could be made in our area of interest. OK …this isn’t a wooden boat story but John Jeremy’s article in the Sydney Amateurs Newsletter is full of positivity and worth getting out to as wide an readership as possible.
Most of the world’s cargoes are carried by ship, and many thousands of the over 90,000 commercial ships in service today are at sea at any one time. Most are powered by diesel engines and contribute considerably to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and pollution by exhaust gasses like nitrous oxides. This problem is being tackled in the short term by the phasing out of heavy fuel oils and the installation of exhaust gas scrubbing systems like selective catalytic reduction (owners of modern diesel cars will be familiar with diesel exhaust fluid or AdBlue). Liquefied Natural gas (LNG) is being used more frequently for powering ships and longer-term solutions include the introduction of new fuels like hydrogen and ammonia. Existing technologies can be adapted to use hydrogen or ammonia and major marine diesel engine manufacturers are working on new engines to use these fuels, either by themselves or in conjunction with LNG. Hydrogen can be produced using water as a feed stock and renewable energy from solar or wind sources (known as green hydrogen) which can either be shipped or used as a fuel directly or as ammonia. The introduction of these new fuels presents considerable opportunities for Australia. For example, the Western Green Energy Hub is a megascale renewable energy project located in Western Australia covering 15,000 km2 across the Goldfields-Esperance region in the state’s south-east. Once completed and producing wind and solar power by about 2030, it will be the largest such energy hub in the world and will generate 50 GW of renewable energy to create millions of tonnes of green hydrogen and ammonia for international export.
The MOL concept of triangular sails on cranes for wind assistance
Hydrogen is already being used as a marine fuel by generating electricity using fuel cells. Recently the cruise division of the Switzerland-based MSC Group, the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri and the energy company August 2021 Snam signed a MOU to develop the design of the world’s first hydrogen powered cruise ship. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has set 2050 Greenhouse Gas emission goals which will drive developments rapidly in the coming decade. Meanwhile, some shipping companies are adopting very well-proven technology to make use of a free resource, wind, to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sail power is making a come-back for commercial shipping. The Japanese shipping group Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOL) is working with others to develop triangular sails which can be mounted on ship’s cargo cranes to give a propulsion boost. MOL sees opportunities for sails to be installed on a wide range of ships like bulk carriers, woodchip carriers and multi-purpose vessels. They are also working on other projects including telescoping hard sails and wind-propulsion combined with hydrogen power. The Scandinavian-based shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen has plans for a wind-powered pure car and truck carrier for completion as soon as 2025. The 220 m long vessel will have the capacity to carry 7,000 vehicles at speeds of 10–12 knots. Another Scandinavian company, Yara Marine Technologies, has combined with a British company, BAR Technologies, to offer commercial-scale wind-assisted propulsion technology, known as BARTech Wind Wings, which can be installed to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. The first commercial installation has already begun on a ship for delivery in 2022. BAR Technologies is a spin-off from the British America’s Cup racing team, BAR, founded by Olympian Ben Ainslie in 2016.
The proposed Wallenius Wilhelmsen car and truck carrier
BARTech Wind Wings
Recently the French classification society Bureau Veritas approved in principle the design of a wind-assisted container ship. The design, named Trade Winds 2500, is for a LNG-powered ship equipped with six wingsails to achieve a CO2 emission reductions of as much 35% compared to a conventionally-powered ship based on a typical transatlantic route of 4,000 nautical miles. With an overall length of 197 m and a breadth of 32 m, the vessel will have a deadweight of 32,500 t and capacity for 2,500 twenty-foot equivalent containers. Although the size makes the design suitable for short sea shipping operations or feeder services in Europe, Central America, Caribbean Islands and China, the ship could also operate also on transatlantic routes.
Approved in principle — a wind-assisted container ship. The sails retract for working cargo
Neoline’s sail-powered cargo ship
The basic design has hybrid propulsion with the wing sails and LNG-powered 4-stroke generators providing electricity for podded propulsors. The ships will have a conversion upgrade option to use hydrogen or ammonia as a fuel. Meanwhile, the France-based shipping company Neoline is pressing on with plans for a sail-powered cargo ship. In June the company signed a Letter of Intent for the construction of its first ship with Neopolia Mobility based in Loire, France, following an international tender with about ten competing shipyards. Neoline has plans for two ships which will operate between St-Nazaire, Halifax, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and Baltimore on the US east coast. The first vessel, a 136 m ship with capacity for 500 cars and 280 containers is planned for completion in the first half of 2024. With 4,200 m2 of sail area and engine assistance, Neoline believes the vessels can achieve a speed of at least 11 knots to keep a biweekly service schedule. The tyre manufacturer Michelin has agreed to ship a portion of its tyres using Neoline’s vessels. Even Flettner rotors are making a comeback. Flettner rotors use a spinning cylinder to convert the force of the wind into thrust to help propel the ship by tapping the forces of the Magnus effect, a commonly observed effect in which a spinning ball, or cylinder in this case, curves away from its principal path. The concept of Flettner sail rotors was first demonstrated on ships in the 1920s. Today one of the most wellknown uses of Flettner rotors is on E-Ship 1, which has been in service since 2010 for Enercon transporting wind energy converters. Enercon claims that, depending on weather conditions, the rotors have helped the vessel achieve fuel savings of up to 15%.
E-Ship 1
Of course, sail-powered cruise ships have been around for a while. Sea Cloud cruises has recently taken delivery of their latest ship, Sea Cloud Spirit, a 138 metre-long ship which can accommodate up to 136 passengers. She is a three-masted fully-rigged ship with a sail area around 4,100 m2 and is also equipped with two diesel-electric drives with a capacity of 1700 kW each. While sail power might not become dominant again on the world’s oceans, it appears likely to play a part. Perhaps someone might decide to carry grain from Australia to Europe in sail-powered bulk carriers. They could even have a race — or has that been thought of before?
Sea Cloud Spirit