Schiffstechnik | Ship
Schiffstechnik | Ship Technology SMM strikes a positive balance Under the motto »Trends in SMMart Shipping«, this year’s trade fair SMM brought together about 50,000 industry visitors from more than 120 countries Mecklenburger Metallguss GmbH made waves during and after SMM by delivering the world’s largest propeller. The 110 t piece with a diameter of 10.5 m is for one of carrier MSC’s 23.000 TEU newbuildings. The propeller was loaded onto a vessel in the port of Hamburg where about 100 MMG propellers are being handled annually for shipyards everywhere in the world. The fair in Hamburg focused on digitalisation and »green shipping« this year –featuring a total of 2,289 exhibitors from 69 nations, and five accompanying conferences in 13 halls covering a total of 93.000 m2 of exhibition floor. Bernd Aufderheide, President and CEO of Hamburg Messe und Congress (HMC), was highly pleased with the outcome of the fourday event: »SMM 2018 was a full success. We again welcomed the Who’s Who and we have seen again that there is nothing that can replace the person-to-person interaction between the key players of the sector.« Digitalisation is one of the key drivers of the industry, along with environment protection. Many exhibition stands gave evidence of this, frequently using touchscreens, simulators and virtual reality goggles to make their innovative technologies more tangible for visitors. »This year you can really see the digital revolution entering the maritime sector,« said Frank Coles, the then president of Transas Group, a Wärtsilä company. Other exhibitors agreed: »As the digital revolution becomes maritime reality, SMM 2018 has proved to be the ideal opportunity to launch the ABB Ability Marine Pilot Control dynamic positioning (DP) system as part of the journey towards autonomous shipping,« explained Mikko Lepistö of ABB, who as well was a speaker at the »Maritime Future Summit«, which was organized by the SMM team in close cooperation with HANSA (see page 48). The visitors were able to choose theme routes guiding them to specific exhibitors, including the new Cruise & Ferry Route. In addition and again, several business deals were finalised at SMM. For example, GEA announced an order from P&O Cruises for its innovative industrial refrigeration technology. Other exhibitors likewise expressed their satisfaction about major new orders. The classification society DNV GL, for example, reported having been contracted to supervise and classify a 2,750 TEU newbuilding project at the Chinese shipyard Huangpu-Wenchong (HPWS), and the ship propeller manufacturer MMG seized the day to deliver the world’s biggest containership propeller on the occasion of SMM. The »Maritime 3D-Printing Show Area«, also received plenty of attention (see page 54). SMM was again complemented by high-profile conferences covering specific topics such as digitalisation (Maritime Future Summit), environment protection (Global Marine Environmental Congress), ocean research (Offshore Dialogue) as well as security and defence (Maritime Security & Defence). The Career Forum, a series of presentations about maritime professions and careers, was another first. For the seventh time, the MS&D was held in Hamburg during SMM. The focus was on current and future challenges for maritime security and defence. Twenty renowned naval, industrial and science experts discussed topics such as how to protect international ocean trading routes, when and how to deploy naval forces on crisis missions, as well as cybersecurity issues. Photo: HHLA At the Offshore Dialogue, scientists, engineers and shipbuilding experts gathered to discuss sustainable deep sea mining as well as opportunities and risks of Arctic shipping. The main focus was on the latest maritime technologies – plus the question: When will the time be right to begin exploiting the resources in the deep blue? At gmec, the global maritime environmental congress, experts discussed how the global shipping industry can achieve the IMO’s ambitious environmental goals while continuing to provide its services at competitive prices. »We are at the beginning of a new chapter in the history of shipping,« said Tian-Bing Huang, Deputy Director - Marine Environment Division at IMO. The next SMM will take place from 8 to 11 September 2020 in Hamburg. If you are interested in more details of the conferences, as well as the most relevant news and insights from exhibitors, please visit www.hansa-online.de and www. hansa-online.de/smm/RD 46 HANSA International Maritime Journal – 155. Jahrgang – 2018 – Nr. 10
Schiffstechnik | Ship Technology »We need a broad collaboration« Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL – Maritime, predicts a lot of efforts to meet the ambitious climate targets set by the IMO. He says that all players in the industry including academia and public funding should join forces to develop innovative technologies In terms of fuels and propulsion systems, a few years ago LNG seemed to be the hot topic. What are your expectations, does it still have the biggest potential or will it rather be a mixture of fuels and propulsion systems in the future? Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen: It all depends on what time perspective you take on this. If you look more to 2020 when the sulphur cap will be introduced, it is pretty obvious now that the majority will go either for distillates or blended fuels. Neither Scrubbers nor LNG will be first choice if you compare the exiting vessels and orders. The interesting question is what will happen in the decades to follow. I am sure, that we will see a much more diverse fuel picture. There are quite a number of options like LNG, LPG, ethanol, methanol or hydrogen, although some of them will need more time to mature. As a first step, gas based fuels will take a dominant role. But with regard to the greenhouse emission target set by the IMO, neither LNG nor LPG will deliver what is expected. So, alternatives have to be developed. In shortsea shipping I really believe that the use of batteries will constitute quite a significant portion. For coastal ferries, batteries are already in use. Do you believe that batteries will be powerful enough to fuel other kinds of ships, feeder container vessels, for example? Ørbeck-Nilssen: If you look at the automotive sector, you see huge improvements in terms of capacity and battery life cycle. Inevitably, this development will also be relevant for the shipping industry. However, it has a limitation on how far you can go. Probably hybrid solutions will take on a more dominant part especially when you are approaching the port areas or special environmental zones. For the long haul it is not a viable solution. Nevertheless, batteries can still be quite useful as an auxiliary power source, e.g. for crane operations. What about fuel cells? Ørbeck-Nilssen: We have done quite a bit of research on this. But it is still an immature technology especially to put it on an ocean going vessel. We do need new solutions, but other technologies seem to be promising in the first run. Again, as a supplementary power source, fuel cells might be an interesting topic and we need new technologies. Speaking of research and innovations … From DNV GL’s point of view, what could be the most important projects in the coming years? Ørbeck-Nilssen: Well, naturally energy transition in general remains one of the most important topics for us. What we need is a broad collaboration with the whole industry and academia with support from public funding. There is really a gap that needs to be filled. Second, autonomous shipping. We are not talking about unmanned vessels, but about a higher degree of autonomy on-board the vessels and a better connection between ship and shore. But this will be also an area where you need to test out quite a few things to make sure that the technologies will meet all technical, safety and legal requirements. Our first project will be the Yara Birkeland. It’s a niche but also a fantastic test bed. What about scaling this project to even larger applications? Could autonomous container vessels on the big trades become reality? Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL – Maritime Ørbeck-Nilssen: Again, you should never say never. If you look at the technologies, it might be possible. If you look at the regulations it’ll take a lot of work and time to go there. And it is also an issue of maintenance if there is no crew on-board. Port time is very precious, so when and by whom should it be done? In the end, it is up to the ship owner to answer this question. Do you expect any consolidation among classification societies and will you be part of it in the future? Ørbeck-Nilssen: »Expect« is a strong word. In the maritime industry going forward, scale and innovation will be key. That applies to shipping companies, yards, suppliers and to classification societies as well. The move that we made five years ago was quite good, we are really benefitting from it. Does is make sense to improve scale? Yes. But we have no plans at the moment. Interview: K. Förster / M. Meyer Photo: DNV GL HANSA International Maritime Journal – 155. Jahrgang – 2018 – Nr. 10 47
