Aronnax

In this episode of the Aronnax Show, Craig Eason talks to Mark Cameron, Chief Operating Officer at Irish shipowner Ardmore Shipping about the company's unusual decision to launch a join venture commercial enterprise looking to marinise methanol reformers for shipping.

The technology takes liquid methanol and makes hydrogen which can be fed into a PEM fuel cell. The company believes this technology could be used to replace electrical generators and auxiliary engines in ocean going ships and main engines of inland waterway vessels.

Additionally we hear brief comment from MAN ES about their new engine. It's an Otto cycle engine as opposed to a Diesel cycle which the company is more known. Like all it engines these days it is dual fuel, able to burn fuel oil and liquid natural gas, but it adds to a portfolio of engines which will soon include an ammonia powered engine. But what is also interesting is the application of exhaust gas re-circulation a technology which, as its name suggests, feeds engine exhaust back into the engine while it is running. MAN ES explains how it improves performance and has an added benefit of reducing methane slip, a weakness of the LNG dual fuel engines that critics have been keen to highlight.

Finally we have a regular update from Nick Chubb from Thetius on some of the other news and announcements that underscores the transformation of the shipping and maritime space.

Stories covered in this episode can be found on Fathom.World

MAN ES demonstrates new Otto cycle two stroke main engine

Ardmore Shipping launches new venture:

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Last week there were two noticeable announcements from shipping companies about the types of ships they are going to, or to be accurate could be, ordering in the future, and these were noticeable as these two vessels were a methanol powered container ship and a wind powered deep sea car carrier.

As we see the drive to decarbonise society and the shipping industry there is pressure on many sides for more action and less talking. But given the ask, the action has been slow to materialise. As we have heard in previous episodes of Aronnax show the race is speeding up to find new fuels and new ways to create a cleaner more sustainable shipping industry, one that is up to the challenge that society is setting itself.

These two announcements from Maersk Line in Copenhagen Denmark and Wallenius Wilhelmsen in Oslo Norway, could, if their promises remain true be seen in the future as some of the first significant steps on this journey.

Maersk Line said it will be building a feeder container vessel that will run off methanol. Well, actually it will be dual fuelleld so it will still has the option to use existing fossil bunker fuels as well.

Tis is not one of the giant boxships that sail between Asia and Europe and the US, these huge vessels have a nominal capacity of well over 20,000 20 foot containers. This methanol vessel, with 2,000 teu is a lot smaller and run on a regular shuttle feeder route according to Morten Bo Christiansen, who is head of Decarbonisaiton at AP Moller Maersk

The company gave me a short window of opportunity to talk to him about the news, but in that time he told me about the challenges they will face. The group aims to get the vessel in the water and in service by 2023. Christiansen says this order for the ship, and the announcement that all future newbuilds will be dual fuelled for future fuels, which should help fuel makers see the potential market for fuels. The company has told the press that customers using this vessel will see higher rates for cargo, reflecting the current higher costs of ordering such a vessel, and the cost of greener fuels which remain higher than current fossil based fuels.

 Also last week Wallenius Wilhelmsen said it will also be pushing on with a project o build a wind powered giant car carrier. The challenges are significant, but the company is moving the Oceanbird project that Swedish partner Wallenius Line began last year.

But it was back in 2005, Norwegian shipowner and manager Wilhelmsen designed a ship it was never intending to build.

It was called Orcelle, like the company’s other vessel’s at the time it was a car carrier, but unlike anything else it was a design of a future ship that had sails, alternative power, wave power, solar panels and other technological ideas that were at the time looking unlikely to become reality.

The announcement last week was for a vessel it is calling Orcelle Wind, and which it hopes to order next year providing the project meets five key feasibility criteria: Namely that such a vessel makes technical, operational, regulatory, financial and commercial sense. Roger Strevens, vice president of Global Sustainability at Wallenius Wilhelmsen talks about the decision to develop such a radically different vessel.  

The listed company is majority owned by Wallenius in Sweden and Wilhelmsen in Norway. The Oceanbird project which has led to Orcelle Wind was driven largely by Wallenius in the beginning. Wilhelmsen in Norway has been evolving its own projects within it subsidiaries, including hydrogen fuelled projects and electrification. And in an earlier episode we talked about another joint venture called Massterley which Wilhelmsen runs with Norwegian tech firm Kongsberg.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This particular podcast episode looks at two stories that have been in the news. One deals with changing definition of seamanship in connection with the technologies, and the other the search for technologies to help seafarers.

First we have an academic paper published in Norway (NTNU) which has raised the question about what seamanship is ….and whether it is the right word to be using in modern shipping.

Then we look at how fatigue, tiredness, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the mandatory requirements for rest hours have led to new technologies from software startups to give seafarers a better life onboard their vessels by making them aware of their own health and linking this to onboard productivity

In this episode we hear from:

Torgeir Haavik Research Professor, NTNU Social Research,Trondheim, Norway

https://www.linkedin.com/in/torgeir-kolst%C3%B8-haavik-b6bb1a1b3/

Trond Kongsvik, Professor, NTNU, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management

https://www.linkedin.com/in/trond-kongsvik-4758972/

Stuart Willis,  CMO and Hours of Rest Hero, Work Rest

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-willis-867196b8/

Arshia Gratiot, Founder & CEO, Canary Sentinel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arshiagratiot/

Nick Chubb Founder and Managing Director, Thetius

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickchubb/

Host:

Craig Eason, Owner and Editorial Director, Fathom World  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cragson/

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This show is all about greenwashing, and in particular a drive coming out of Norway to get companies, all companies, to be more honest about the environmental impact of their products and services. Greenwashing is not a Norwegian issue, but there is one organisation in Norway that has now got a few hundred companies to sign a pledge to adhere to ten key principles of greenwashing.

SKIFT is a membership organisation of Norwegian industry leaders. Its goal is to attract the most climate ambitious businesses in the country so that it can demonstrate that businesses can reduce emissions and move to a low carbon economy with innovation rather than too much regulation.The ten principles it is asking corporates to sign up to encourage them to ensure they take more care with their choice of words and their actions.

SHIFT now wants to make these principles more international and think some of the work in Europe . such as recent European sustainability taxonomy will be a great help in what they hope to encourage businesses to do voluntarily.

I spoke with Skift CEO Bjørrn Haugland about the campaign, its objectives, particularly as it seeks to gain international momentum and how he sees it applying to the ocean and shipping businesses, as well as how he can make sure signing up to a code against greenwashing is not in itself greenwashing. (We also talked about the lobby groups and how they use choice words to influence opinion).

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The International Maritime Industry, through the environmental protection committee is working to find agreement on how to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of shipping.

It is difficult as member states send representatives to toe a particular political line, making compromise hard. However it is not impossible, but progress is slow (which annoys the green lobby groups) and the debate sometimes heated (especially as the current meeting is online and subject to truncated hours and ongoing technical glitches).

However while the IMO member state representatives debate the future of shipping, the secretariat continues to do its work, which also includes realising its plans for the newly formed Partnerships and Projects department, which amongst other things aims to mobilise funds and resources to help countries, notably developing countries, with their decarbonisation plans (including getting their regulations sorted).

I spoke to Jose Matheickal, Partnerships and Projects department chief earlier in the year about the formation of this department, and with the November climate talks in full swing, I poke to him again to hear about some of the projects, notably the issue of project finance and how to mobilise finance for international decarbonisation, given some of the announcements the department has recently made.

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In this episode of Aronnax, host Craig Eason is in France (albeit remotely) to talk to two people working in the field of wind-powered systems to see what can make shipping a more attractive industry for today's young professional.

Is shipping sexy enough for the millennials that are today's university graduates and tomorrow's game changers.

He asks a naval architect and project manager, SImon Watin about switching from the glittery world of high octane ocean racing yachts and luxury cruisers to the more industrial commercial world. Simon works at VPLP and is working on the new ro-ro vessel being built to carry Arianes's space rockets to French Guiana. The vessel is being built with four giant wing-sails that Simon and hos colleagues have developed from the racing world.

Then we hear from Vincent Bernatets founder of AirSeas, a company that is putting a huge kite system onto an Airbus ro-ro ship that will take Airbuses airplane parts around Europe.

These two French companies with their different wind assist technologies represent the cutting edge of change in the shipping industry.

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In this episode we start with a look at ITF concerns about the use of ships' crews, who may be stranded onboard due to Covid restrictions, performing safety related surveys. We hear from Odd Rune Malterud, co-author of the ITF report "Beyond the Limit" about what needs to change, and to DNV GL's maritime CEO Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen about the value of being able to do remote surveys and so keep ships in service.

Then.

Angela is a coastal Chief Engineer in the US having gone to maritime academy in 2004. She shares some of her experiences throughout her career and why she thinks it is important that we all share responsibility for the future of our industry (Including where dads and mums can encourage daughters to get involved in maritime and shipping careers).

I also talk to GIna Panayiotou, a maritime lawyer about the recourse that those who are bullied or victims of abuse can have, and where she thinks more responsibilities lie. Gina is also the founder of the It's All About Shipping Facebook stream, and passionate about sharing the benefits of maritime careers among younger people who our industry's ambassadors of the future.

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The European Parliament voted on amendments to a proposal that will have sweeping implications. Craig Eason, Editorial Director at Fathom.World the shipping and maritime news portal speaks to Martin Dorsman at the European Community Shipowners' Associations, which represents national shipowner associations in policy issues in Brussels.

Craig also talks to Jasper Faber, maritime specialist at CE Delft, who has been a key author of the IMO's 4th study into shipping's greenhouse gas emissions, to find out how this report differs from the rest and how it makes shipping more visible and likely to change.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.