Page 56 - Next Generation 2015 - Digtial Issue
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Next Generation The future
FAST FORWARD 10 YEARS Peter Mantel, BMT Smart managing director
IN THE future, the international regulators will be more involved The trick with be managing all this data, modelling it and
in vessel-monitoring standards, especially as more vessels adopt present it in a useful way. Whether it is ship performance,
permanently connected broadband services to stream data, says navigational data and other parameters, certain data will be
BMT Smart managing director Peter Mantel. required for different sets of decision-making processes.
These are exciting times. Vessel monitoring is being driven by For this reason, and with the various companies increasingly
manufacturers, but Mr Mantel says it is the charterers that like it, as getting into the data collection space, Mr Mantel believes the
they increasingly look to monitor and check fuel performance on International Maritime Organization should be more involved.
chartered-in vessels.
However, the IMO’s track record is not good when it comes
The shipowners may be more wary, but Mr Mantel says they to mandating technology. Environmental rules deal with goal-
too should see the benefit. based targets, while recent navigational requirements such as the
mandatory installation of electronic chart display and information
As more ships transmit more data ashore, the big systems went through various failed debates before it was
transformation will be the development of more share-based control accepted.
centres having real time oversight of a fleet of ships and being able
to advise onboard crews what to do. But there is a need for the development of standards,
especially as Mr Mantel sees this as the first step towards
This probably goes against the thinking of many seafarers and remote-controlled ships, where crew teams join at specific points
current owners, who rely on ships’ crews to make the overarching of the voyage.
decisions, but Mr Mantel is convinced that shore-based decision-
making is the way forward. All the technology exists to create either autonomous ships
or remote-controlled ships, he says. The problem is that society is
The noon report will become a thing of the past, he says. This not yet ready for it.
daily transmission of data, including distance travelled, fuel and
other consumables used, sea state and vessel condition, will be The development of monitor and control standards will
replaced with much more accurate information transmitted much help, Mr Mantel says, as a variety of systems, good and bad, are
more frequently and without an error-prone human interface. installed across the world fleet.
FAST FORWARD 20 YEARS Ole Groene, MAN Diesel & Turbo senior vice-president
THE challenge facing the largest two-stroke enginemaker in the vessel Selandia was built in 1902, it took decades before oil was a
next two decades will be ensuring that engines meet any future widely used marine fuel, and almost 100 years before coal was not
emissions targets without impacting the ability to squeeze out the used at all, Mr Groene explains.
last fuel efficiency gain.
He is not too concerned over talk about peak oil, and reports of
For Ole Groene, who is also known as Mr Diesel, it is a case of declines in crude oil and natural gas.
working out how to perfect the reduction of NOx without increasing
the amount of CO2 and reducing the efficiency gains in which the “Crude reserves are a function of the crude oil price. It will
enginemakers have been investing. take a long time and there are new development methods being
developed all the time,” he says, pointing to fracking.
In a similar argument, there is the power demand on a ship’s
engines when using an exhaust gas-cleaning system that will But having said that, Mr Groene goes on to say there will be an
remove sulphur. increase in the types of fuels that will be used to power the world’s
increasingly diverse global fleet. He includes biofuels in that list.
Shipping’s ability to meet any regulatory target is totally
dependent on the technology firms such as MAN Diesel investing in MAN engines can be powered by anything combustible, he
the research and development to create the solutions. says. The company has already proven that its two-stroke engines
can be fuelled with ethanol, methanol, ethane and LPG. The engines
For NOx reductions, there is a clear set of technologies that cannot tell the source of the energy, says Groene, so it could be a
has been developed, but like the way similar reduction systems biofuel, just as easily as a hydrocarbon.
were introduced and became commonly used in the car industry,
it will be a couple of decades before they are widespread around But the big question for the next 50 years will be whether
international shipping, says Mr Groene. society changes its attitude towards nuclear power. If the CO2
debate leads to more forceful reduction regulations both within
He is a lot more cautious about the uptake of liquefied shipping as elsewhere, then the case may become more compelling.
natural gas and other fuels by shipping, particularly the deepsea
shipping sector, which prefers large two-stroke engines that can If providing nuclear becomes more accepted as a widespread
use heavy fuel oil. power source for transportation, then Mr Groene thinks there could
be a more compelling case for nuclear than wind power, which is
It may well come, he says, but will likely be at least 50 years, beginning to emerge as one of the next innovations to become a
maybe 100 years ahead. When the first oil-powered commercial reality.
54 | Lloyd’s List Next Generation 2015 | www.lloydslist.com
