The Maritime Economist Magazine Spring 2015 | Page 40

THEMARITIME Economist

voice of young generation

FreshMINDS

Emerging Maritime
Technologies
Bekir SAHIN
Maritime Department, Istanbul Technical University,
Istanbul, Turkey

ME Mag

New technologies regarding to energy efficiency,
air pollution, waste treatment, safety, navigation and
emergency have been developed for a long time.
These technologies might focus on navigational,
operational, capacity enhancement, hull & propeller
improvements, bulbous bow & surface designs,
energy and systems. Ship-owners generally tend to
consider new technologies based on International
Maritime Organization (IMO)’s mandatory regulations
and standards such as MARPOL, SOLAS, COLREG
and etc.

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This is a fact that new technologies in maritime
field as being in all other sectors provide long-term
financial benefits. Ship owners will take this into
account increasingly every passing day. The following
example demonstrates the significance of investing
to the new technologies. The Marine Environment
Protection Committee, IMO (MEPC 60/4/36 ANNEX 2)
has presented a cost-benefit analysis for prevention
of air pollution from ships. It offers some new
technologies such as
(1) optimization of superstructure for reduction of air
and wind resistance
(2) optimization of stern shape for reduction of wave
making resistance by shape of stern
(3) low friction coating, air lubrication method, stern
duct, and stern fin for reduction of friction resistance

(4) corrosion resistant products, pre-swirl fin and
hybrid pod for improvement of propeller efficiency
(5) stem duct, pre-swirl fin, spritstern and post-swirl
system for improvement of propulsion efficiency by
shape of stern.
According to this, in case of investing possible
combinations of the proposed new technologies,
an 84.000 DWT tanker will provide %25.9 energy
efficiency within the years of 2018-2022 and
%37.3 for 2023-2027. The estimations of fuel oil
consumption of main engine for 8-year period will
decrease from 114.036 to 71.533 tons. If bunker
price is assumed 400($/t) with interest rate of 2.0 (%),
fuel cost reduction for 8 years will be 10.80 (M$) in
the years between 2018-2022 and 15.54 (M$) for
2023-2027.
Accordingly, MEPC (MEPC 67/INF.9) has declared
the costs of the projects on new technologies
for energy efficiency. The list of energy
saving potential declares that costs for 18 out of
23 projects are negligible, zero and low. Similarly,
the savings for 20 out of 23 projects are high and
medium. Even if the cost is high, its savings are high.
Therefore, new technologies provide much more
benefit than expected after choosing the appropriate
project with its high performance and applying it with
careful planning.