Future of ships

[powerabout]

it looked a bit like a Norwegian gov gift to a few underutilized workers, lets hope the economy picks up to make use of them.

[ombugge]

There are lot more involved than a few underutilised workers. RRM is a cornerstone in the Maritime Cluster in and around Aalesund and a major force in the development of marine technology and equipment for the ships of the future.

If this major player had been sold off to some speculators from City or Wall Street and broken up to “maximise profit for shareholders” the momentum would have been lost.
Even a sale to Wartsila could have resulted in all or part of the R&D activity on RRM moving to Finland and be lost to the Maritime Cluster here.

“Great enjoyment for the roll-Royce Marine home purchase”
The announcement that the Kongsberg Group buys the Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine exudes jubilant joy on Friday.
After many have lived in uncertainty and fear that the division could be divided up and sold to foreign owners, the shoulders could be lowered. That the Kongsberg Group, with the support of the state, takes over as the owner is the very best solution.

Kongsberg and Rolls-Royce Marine are world leaders in various fields and complement each other with its technological innovations. While Kongsberg Group is a leader in automation, navigation and control systems, Rolls-Royce has its strength in delivering propellers, propulsion systems, equipment and ship design. Together, the company has leading positions before digitising and developing autonomous ships, and it can be a good idea for the development of the Norwegian maritime ondustry

A year ago, the rumours was that Rolls-Royce wanted to close down work in Norway and move it to Finland. We also heard that Finnish government forces were on the offensive to strengthen the role of Rolls-Royce in Finland, and this made many in Sunnmøre uneasy. Therefore, there is reason to commend all who have been involved in the efforts to secure Norwegian acquisition of the Marine Division.
The government contribute up to NOK 2.5 billion towards the purchase price, and we are confident that this is a good and future-oriented investment. It is about many workplaces, the future of the maritime cluster and Norway’s position as a leading maritime nation.

We mean Kongsberg should move their head office for the Marine Division to the coastal town of Ålesund, and welcome the company to Sunnmøre.
When Rolls-Royce a number of years ago chose to set up its European Training Center in Ålesund, there was a clear recognition of the strength of the maritime cluster in Sunnmøre. The proximity to shipowners, shipbuilders, crew, design environment, equipment providers, research, education and practical sailor experience made this region unique.
Later, this environment has been further expanded in the form of cooperation between NTNU, the Norwegian Maritime Competence Centre (NMK) and the others that form Campus Ålesund.
Along with the “catapult status” of ÅKP, this makes Ålesund an attractive maritime centre.

[ombugge]

Norway is gambling on hydrogen as clean fuel for use in the heritage fjords:

Norway takes gamble on hydrogen fuel
Charlie Bartlett, correspondent | 10 July 2018

Norwegian ferry operator Boreal Sjø and Wärtsilä Ship Design have entered into a cooperation agreement to develop a hydrogen-powered ferry to the Hjelmeland-Skipavik-Nesvik route in Norway

At 22 Karl Johans Gate, Oslo, an uncharacteristic gamble is taking place. In May, Norway’s government introduced legislation to ban any kind of carbon emissions in the waters of UNESCO World Heritage-protected sites Nærøyfjord and Geirangerfjord from 2026.

The biggest problem with this legislation is that the technology to achieve it does not exist. The Fjords, the joint-venture ferry company operating here, has just launched an all-electric, battery-powered, carbon-fibre-constructed ferry, Future of the Fjords. But thanks to the feeble local grid infrastructure, it can only charge enough to run one trip a day. Without major upgrades to the local power supply, even small vessels like this will struggle.

But the ban will also cover the huge cruise vessels that bring in revenues to the fjords every year. Batteries are unworkable for these heavyweights; with this kind of hotel load, even shore power is off the table. Options are limited to some form of nuclear reactor, methanol, or Norway’s darling of the moment, hydrogen.

Thought to be the future for the automotive industry before the arrival of practical battery-electric cars, hydrogen is also used as rocket fuel, and, in the past, for buoyancy on various airships.

It is far from the most practicable fuel, but it does offer some exciting possibilities. In theory, if bunkered on ships, it would emit nothing more than harmless water vapour. Vessels today running on four-stroke diesel engines could instead use fuel cells. This would almost double the efficiency, with fuel cells able to achieve 60% efficiency compared to around 30-35% for diesel engines. While also generating no NOx and little noise or vibration, this would be another boon for the fjords.

The future of fuel

There is a chance hydrogen may be poised for a take-off. Because renewable energy infrastructure such as wind turbines and solar fluctuate, the power cannot be used by the grid all the time. Various countries - notably Belgium - are examining using this spare energy to generate hydrogen through electrolysis (passing an electronic current through a solution containing ions to create a chemical reaction). As well as making better use of renewables, this could also increase hydrogen supply.

Unfortunately, today, these projects are small, and theoretical. Virtually all hydrogen is, like methanol, refined from non-renewable natural gas. Viewed holistically in a ‘well-to-tank’ (WTT) sense, non-renewable hydrogen adds carbon. According to DNV GL data, ‘steam-reformed’ hydrogen beats LNG in WTT CO2 emissions by around a third.

Even so, the Norwegians have elected to make the iron hot by striking, and are forging ahead. In collaboration with the Road Administration, The Fjords is tendering for design and construction of a new hydrogen-powered car ferry, CEO Rolf Sandvik told SAS.

“The Road Administration director went public saying the ferry will most likely be liquefied hydrogen," he said. “There is a lot of work to do on this, but it is possible, and they will award the first contract by the end of this year if the price is not prohibitive.”

Sandvik’s gamble is that a short-term CO2 increase - as these vessels begin their lives burning non-renewable-hydrogen - will be offset later by an increase in production of clean hydrogen.

However, one of the main difficulties with hydrogen is how it will be contained. Because of its low density it requires very large tanks. To put this into perspective, the US space shuttle’s eye-catching orange external tank (ET) contains only one seventh as much liquid hydrogen as liquid oxygen. Yet, the former requires three times as much storage volume as the latter.

According to DNV GL’s Alternative Fuels report, compressed hydrogen requires 15 times the storage volume of heavy fuel oil. Alternatively, in liquefied form, volume is five times greater. Another problem is temperature. LNG, which provides challenges for designers even today, requires storage at a balmy -162°C. Hydrogen, on the other hand, requires -253°C.

Asked how he expects to handle the gas on board, Sandvik responds: “It’s still not 100% clear. But there are a lot of hydrogen projects going on, both in compressed and liquefied forms.”

Explosive risks

Combusting on contact with oxygen, hydrogen is potentially extremely dangerous if a tank springs a leak. In the event of a collision or grounding, results could be severe. For this reason, designs for hydrogen-fuelled vessels tend to locate tanks on top, where a blaze can vent away from the vessel, rather than in enclosed spaces within the hull. More must be done before hydrogen will be safe for use on vessels, Sandvik indicated: “For that project we and the other ferry operators are working together with DNV GL to develop the rules that need to be in place to operate a passenger vessel – and also a car ferry – on hydrogen."

Lars Langfeldt, senior project engineer at DNV GL - Maritime, is confident that hydrogen is a safe and practical option for these types of vessels. “Technologically, we know we can get there; on a regulatory basis, we know that if we do not have the basis, the technology can’t take off,” he told SAS. “What we do not want to do is wait until there is a reliable supply of renewable hydrogen and then begin rule development.

“The fuel industry must do their part, of course. They must supply the renewable hydrogen. The rule development we are doing will make it possible to use it.”

Langfeldt highlighted DNV GL’s involvement with Race for Water, a recent hydrogen project. 93kW of solar cells generate up to 200kg of hydrogen while in port, compressed and stored in tanks on board. Fed into two 30MWh fuel cells, this reserve of potential energy amounts to 2.6MWh, dwarfing the Race for Water’s 754kWh battery system.

Notably, the catamaran’s stored hydrogen reserve also outstrips Future of the Fjords’ larger 1.8MWh battery system. However, unlike Future, Race cannot accommodate 400 passengers, nor can it generate hydrogen and run the motors simultaneously. On top of this, it relies on 500 square metres of solar panels, the aforementioned battery system, and assistance from a skysail for propulsion – and even then, cannot move much faster than 5 knots. The case that hydrogen is a much better energy storage medium than batteries, therefore, is still a tricky one to make.

A possible solution to this – Ammonia (NH3), stored as a liquid at a far less finicky -33°C – is also under discussion at DNV GL. Sigurd Enge, shipping marine and arctic issues manager at Bellona (a consulting partner in the Future of the Fjords project) argued ammonia could be the only sensible way of using hydrogen as ship fuel, noting excitedly that it contains “more hydrogen than hydrogen”.

But Langfeldt has reservations. “The maritime industry has not really studied and tested how ammonia as a hydrogen carrier would behave in practice onboard vessels,” he explained. While he agreed that for bunkering and handling it could have some advantages for ships, namely that it can be stored as a liquid at ambient temperatures as opposed to dealing with the challenges of a -253°C cryogenic liquid.

“But the major question is – does it really have the efficiency we need?” said Langfeldt. “If you want to get the hydrogen out of ammonia, you must heat it up, to crack the hydrogen from the liquid. That thermic energy must come from somewhere.”

The new fjords regulation leaves only eight years to solve this problem, and during that time it is unlikely that a large, steady source of renewable hydrogen will come online. No wonder, then, that the Norwegians are forging ahead.

The facts are a bit distorted. There are already a fully electric excursion boat in Naeroyfjorden, the Vision of the fjords. A similar one for the Geirangerfjord has been built and is presently also in Naeroyfjorden:

The Fjords takes delivery of groundbreaking "Future of The Fjords"

Meanwhile, two old car ferries are used in the Geirangerfjord:

There are plans to produce hydrogen from existing small hydro electric power stations locally in the fjords to supply both ferries, buses, trucks and cars in the near future. Problem is that there are no users at the moment.

[dbeierl]

@ombugge

Combusting on contact with oxygen, hydrogen is potentially extremely dangerous

Wait, wut? You mean I wasted all those matches?

[Earl_Boebert1]

FYI

A $225 GPS spoofer can send sat-nav-guided vehicles into oncoming traffic *

Cheers,

Earl

[ombugge]

Maybe this will help reducing the risk??:

LR grants cyber security AiP to DSME Smart Ship Solution

[ombugge]

Portable power pack for electric propulsion on inland and short sea vessels:

Damen and Skoon Energy sign agreement for advancement of sustainable shipping...

[ombugge]

Forget shiphandling, auto-berthing will soon be a reality:
https://splash247.com/mol-to-trial-auto-berthing/

[ombugge]

Near-time future of shipping as seen by a very knowledgeable commentator:
https://splash247.com/how-to-make-money-from-the-coming-disruption-to-shipping/

PS> That Liquid Hydrogen carrier on the illustration looks fairly futuristic.

[ombugge]

Here is an article by a Norwegian former Captain that do NOT think that autonomous ships are a good idea:

- Norge står i fare for å miste all respekt

[Tellarian]

Michael Grey from LL predicts that OOW#s are becoming amusement arcade machine watcher, and I 100% agree:

" Viewpoint: Mind in neutral

Is smart navigational equipment contributing to incidents of ships running aground or colliding as navigators simply lose concentration?

02 Aug 2018

Opinion

Written by

by Michael Grey

If watchkeepers must be present, they are better engaged with the task of navigating and not relegated to overseeing equipment

In casualty after casualty the person whose attention might have averted the incident was either suffering from a wandering mind, or possibly even asleep, in the supine role of equipment overseer.

WHY on earth do well-found ships, properly manned by certificated officers and crews, manage to run aground or collide, in circumstances that seem to defy rational explanation?

There seems little excuse, in an era when circling satellites provide all the positioning data those on board a ship might need.

It was understandable in the days of dead reckoning and before the all-seeing eye of radar. But the equipment on a modern ship, if properly set up and diligently used, ought to make such casualties impossible.

It is by no means an original suggestion, but may the versatility and capability of the equipment itself contribute to the human navigator, or engineer for that matter, just losing concentration?

And then, when an unforeseen hazard occurs, failing to put a mind that is coasting along in neutral, back into an operational gear? If we are relegating a ship’s officer, who has probably passed all sorts of statutory examinations, to the role of a mere overseer of smart machines, how can an intelligent person remain focused?

More years ago than I care to remember, when I was serving an apprenticeship at sea, we were forced to relieve the quartermaster on the wheel for a two-hour stretch from 0600 hrs every morning. Quite what it was supposed to teach us I cannot recall, other than patience and fortitude, as it was one of the most mind-numbingly boring jobs you could imagine on a deepsea passage.

Just keeping the wretched ship on course, half-asleep and looking forward to a large breakfast, was a real challenge of concentration. The occasional sarcastic question from the Second Mate, looking up from his star calculations, to find the ship falling off the course and the gyro ticking away reproachfully, was a reminder that I really was not cut out for the job.

“Trying to write your name in the sea, Grey?” It is why automatic steering machinery was invented.

Vigilance and attention are important qualities. Those involved in search and rescue operations are regularly relieved from their visual or radar lookouts because it is known concentration wanes after about 20 minutes. It is the same with air traffic control operators, whose lapse in attention could be fatal. Maybe we should learn from these roles.

There is a debate about whether the “driver-assist” features on the latest high-end road vehicles are too clever for their own good, easing the job of driving to such an extent that concentration lapses. Anyone with half a brain, who is not making or selling cars for a living, can see this problem a mile off.

Devices that ought to be banned

One can only hope that before too many people meet an untimely end on our roads, something may be done about this, because anything that distracts the driver from the main task of keeping the car safe is potentially lethal. It ought also to divert our regulators from their current enthusiasm for “driverless” vehicles, before too much taxpayers’ money is shovelled into this fatal project.

Devices that minimise the need for concentration, permitting the mind to wander and even to become engaged on other tasks, ought to be banned, whether we are talking about a “self-driving” truck or a large ship with equipment that removes all the actual work from sentient human beings aboard.

Initially, automation on land or sea was regarded as wholly positive, as it removed the need for people to be engaged in boring, repetitive work that they probably could not do as well as a machine.

The people could be doing something more useful. But on the bridge or machinery space of a ship, if the watchkeepers have to be there, they are better engaged with the main task of navigating and collision avoidance, and not relegated to “long stop”, overseeing the equipment that is doing all the work and intervening only when it breaks down.

Casualty after casualty reveals the person whose attention might have averted the incident was either suffering from a wandering mind, or possibly even asleep, as there was little to keep them awake in this supine role of overseer.

Casualty investigators often cite “complacency”, but I would suggest that a “mind in neutral”, lulled into a semi-comatose state of non-intervention is as often to blame.

What is the point of this equipment, with its need for frequent updates, its cost and complexity, if it contributes to this state of “operator” non-involvement? Might actual practice demonstrate the negatives outweigh the positives?

You will not get any of the clever folk developing and manufacturing this equipment to admit this, because they energetically lobby the International Maritime Organization to persuade it that fitting their latest all singing, all dancing gizmo should be made mandatory.

I recall a friendship of many years with a chief sales manager of navigational equipment being somewhat strained when I suggested he should wire up watchkeepers to electrodes and give them electric shocks to keep them concentrating, such were the tasks his latest “integrated navigator” was removing from their roles.

I suggest the rule makers ought only to listen to those who actually run ships for a living before letting the manufacturers into the IMO building. But I doubt that this will happen.

Unlike those people at sea, trying to stay awake and focused, the vested interests never lose their concentration. "

[powerabout]

They knew this years ago in aviation so Boeing and Airbus have made them fool proof as you will notice 99% of crashes in the last 20 years are when the pilots thought they could fly.
Had they stepped out of the cockpit they would have saved the passengers.

They knew the future young will have half the skills of the old guys and that seems to apply to most industries these days.

[ombugge]

The next step; survey by remote control??:
https://splash247.com/klaveness-conducts-ship-survey-with-no-surveyor-onboard/

[ombugge]

Then the building contract for Yara Birkeland has finally been signed, with scheduled delivery in 2020 and fully operational in autonomous mode by 2022:
http://gcaptain.com/shipbuilding-contract-signed-for-unmanned-zero-emission-container-ship-yara-birkeland/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Gcaptain+(gCaptain.com)&goal=0_f50174ef03-d877bb2014-169863069&mc_cid=d877bb2014&mc_eid=4674ba0fbe

[ombugge]

Rolls-Royce Marine has developed and patented their own battery system for ships:
https://splash247.com/rolls-royce-develops-its-own-marine-battery-system/
Hopefully this will stay with the company when it change hands in a few months time.

[ombugge]

A popular subject has been cyber security for ships. Here is one more article on the subject:
https://splash247.com/to-tackle-cyber-risks-you-have-to-get-onboard/
One good thing is that when ships gets autonomous there will be no crew to accidentally spread bugs by careless use of USB sticks.

[Earl_Boebert1]

A vendor-written article that (surprise!) fails to mention supply chain attacks, the professional’s method of choice.

Cheers,

Earl

[powerabout]

IMO should force the use of embedded systems for a start so a reboot puts them back to factory where possible.

[ombugge]

More from Sperry Marine on the subject of navigation equipment, security and future development:
https://splash247.com/from-small-steps-to-giant-leaps-digitalisation-on-the-bridge/

[Earl_Boebert1]

Well, their heart seems to be in the right place. Time will tell whether their minds and wallets follow.

Cheers,

Earl