Marine

Future designs

New designs are emerging fast. Some are conceptual and might incorporate a number of the future fuel and engine technologies in previous pages. Lloyd’s Register has been working with designers and yards to help them verify and validate design performance while either maintaining or increasing safety and operational standards.

Harnessing the wind

Victoria Steamship’s commitment to a clean efficient future is demonstrated by its support for the environmental charity Greenwave. Out of that relationship, and after a lot of hard work, newbuildings currently under construction will feature energy saving measures such as ‘wind engines’ and streamlined hull and topsides.

After a full scale prototype had been tested, and monitored with the results evaluated by Lloyd’s Register, the decision was made to proceed with full size application of four such wind engines (known as flettner rotors) on a 95K dwt bulk carrier under construction at Jiangsu Eastern with delivery due in May 2012.

The ‘Bestway’

Lloyd’s Register celebrated a Chinese success story with a series of end-of-2011 joint industry projects (JIPs) with Chinese companies. The first was the planning and design of Emerald, an ultra eco-friendly bulk carrier, with the Shanghai-based Bestway Marine Engineering Design Company.

When built, the 35,000 dwt mid-size bulk carrier will improve the current EEDI performance of a standard bulk carrier by 18%. “After producing a market report, we talked to the shipyards. We also realised there was considerable interest in green technology in the bulk carrier segment,” said Professor Liu Nan, Bestway’s General Manager.

“We have forged a very close working relationship with Lloyd’s Register on this project and our joint teams are now working on honing the design to bring in further improvements. The low EEDI indicates to the industry how energy-efficient this ship design is,” he said.

After extensive model-testing, the new design has exceeded targets in a number of key areas. These include a 19.5% reduction in fuel consumption, fuel oil savings of 6.5% and a new propeller design that gives energy savings of 2%. Six of the new designs are currently being built at the Guangdong Jiangmen Nanyang Shipyard in southern China – with more orders in the pipeline.

Shortly afterwards, our China office signed a six-month JIP with Jiangmen Nanyang Ship Engineering (JNS) and Bestway to build a slightly larger 39,000 dwt bulk carrier with multiple green features. Thomas Klenum, General Manager of Lloyd’s Register’s China Marine Business Development Team, said: “In a highly competitive shipping market, we are jointly pursuing the development of fuel efficient, environmentally friendly and high quality ships that are enticing to shipowners. This latest order of the latest generation of Bestway’s Handysize design at JNS is yet another milestone in the excellent co-operation between Bestway, JNS and Lloyd’s Register.”

SHI – The Future is ‘Green’

Samsung Heavy Industries’ (SHI) Koje Shipyard laid the keel in late December on the first ‘Green Future’ branded Suezmax that they will build. The key features applied consist of hydrodynamic improvements and enhanced performance in expected sea-going conditions using an advanced hull form, energy saving devices such as ‘Saver- M K Ha Fins’, a ‘STAR’ Propeller and Rudder bulb as well as a more aerodynamic deckhouse. The Suezmax design energy saving and emission reduction benefits could reduce annual fuel oil costs by over $2 million at today’s bunker rates.

“With the ‘Green Future’ Technologies applied we estimate that this design will perform 17% below the EEDI requirement or even further depending on the applied technologies.”

M K Ha, Executive Vice President of Project Planning Department, SHI (pictured left).

The energy of a Viking

When Finnish owners Viking Line sought a technical partner to help design and classify a new ropax ship fuelled by LNG they approached Lloyd’s Register with its renowned expertise in LNG. The ropax will comply with our provisional rules for LNG propulsion. The project poses many technical challenges for both owner and builder. “As well as ensuring the safety of the LNG system, a key issue will be the integration of both LNG and oil fuel installations and compliance with the new IMO ‘safe return to port’ requirements for passenger ships, a procedure on which Lloyd’s Register is a world leader”, says Matti Niskala, Lloyd’s Register’s Marine Country Manager, Finland.

HHI – a big hitter

HHI - Hyundai Heavy Industry’s ECO VLCC is currently being marketed to the industry although the yard expects the uptake to be slow given prevailing market conditions. The new design will be equipped with advanced technologies and HHI’s J S Lee expects it will make ‘a big hit’ when the tanker market comes back. The thinking behind the design is equally applicable to other large tanker designs and large bulk and ore carriers.

J S Lee “Based on the developed technologies, technical specification can be further discussed between HHI and the owners while giving options to the owners to choose sufficient developed technologies for their operational concepts to fit. Many owners have already shown interests when the ECO VLCC was marketed along with advanced technologies over the last few months.”