Keynotes from the Keynote Speech – CIMAC Congress – Helsinki, 2016
How Stena aims for Cost Efficiency.
“Why Should we carry an equipment that is only used in ports?”
– on Ballast water Treatment Systems.
- The Hull needs to be strong where it is really required and light where the strength is not essentially required. Thus, this would mean a kind of composite hull structure and this is aimed in collaboration with various universities where the weight of hull reduces and thereby power for propulsion is more and thus higher speeds or alternatively we can choose to reduce the overall displacement of the ship.
- If the displacement of the vessel is reduced by 25%, the power for propulsion installed could reduce by 10%, thereby reduction in overall power to weight ratio and thus increase in efficiency.
- One of the main aim is to reduce the number of systems on board Stena ships, where some of Stena’s Ro-Pax vessels (not tankers) never ever use the ballast systems and thus equipping a ballast water system would prove increase in overall weight of the ship and additional maintenance and operating costs.
“There is no need to carry a system over the water all the time, where the system is used only in port!”
– on Ballast water Treatment Systems.
On Cabling & Deck Height:
“All of a sudden we realize that we are actually increasing the height between the roofs (decks), where all the cables has to be pulled to meet the different equipments upto the bridge. The automotive industry has adapted new technology where the amount of cabling and their sizes have been reduced to a greater extent. Why can’t it be introduced in the maritime industry?”
This was a real eye opener for us. A couple of decades ago, cars used to have engines in the rear where the other components could be in the bonnet. The modern ones have everything inside the bonnet and the rear space is free or to carry some luggage.
“Piping arrangement should be designed such that the length of pipes could be reduced or optimized”.
Environmental Impact:
“These are investments which we do not get it for free and we need to add some cost to the ships to achieve this”
- On Installation of PBCF over the propellers
“IMO MAX II project – hull forms have been designed based on the range, area, speed and draft requirements meeting the area of operation of the ships”. This means that the ships and their equipment are specifically designed for a particular area of operation for the most life time of the vessel.
“This resulted in an unconventional bulbous bow and change of shape – where the hull form allowed a larger propeller diameter which we rotate at a lower RPM – We have also installed a Propeller Boss Cap Fin (PBCF) – on propellers and de-rated our main engine.” said Mr. Robertsson during his keynote speech.
“These are investments which we do not get it for free and we need to add some cost to the ships to achieve this. This resulted in 30% reduced installed power on these ships so that we could reach the 30% target”.
“All our projects (all ships) are put to stringent model tests to pick the best/optimized hull form where the speed/power relationship is optimized” and Mr. Robertsson also claimed that Stena has 300 different projects which has enabled their ships to reduce the fuel consumption by 2.5% per year for a number of years.
Watch out for remaining updates in the coming days!
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A very interesting read…..