I saw an interesting article in Composites World about a cargo ship that had added wind power in the form of rotor sails. These things are another form of a wind turbine, like the old eggbeater looking Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines. So I thought – why not – let’s take a little deeper look at what people are doing with wind power on cargo ships. What I found which is written about here, is that there is a lot going on and there is a move afoot to nearly revolutionize the bulk cargo shipping industry – arguably one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
These things from Anemoi are designed with a scoop along one side of the tall tube that catches the wind and rotates the entire tall cylinder. Each one of them has a generator attached to the shaft at the bottom to generate electricity. And since most newer cargo ships use diesel (or bunker crude) powered electrical generators that drive electric thrusters, these rotating power generating wind turbines are used as part of the main propulsion electrical generation.
This particular installation is on the Anemoi Marine Sohar Max, which is a 400,000 ton ore carrier. This represents the largest marine vessel to receive wind power propulsion in the world. The ship was built in 2012 at a Chinese shipyard for Anemoi and their partner Asyad and is dedicated to Brazilian mining giant Vale headquartered in Rio. And it has already made its maiden voyage to test the sails. The claim from Anemoi is that these rotating wind turbines save up to 6% of the vessel’s fuel consumption and will cut carbon emissions by 3000 tons annually.
As I looked into this, it appears that there are a number of somewhat smaller but equally impressive examples of this technology being applied to mostly cargo vessels. And, since there is always wind out on the open sea, this seems to me to be a great application of composites. In the pic above, there is quite a bit of carbon fiber and fiberglass composites in each sail which makes them light weight and strong/stiff enough to be able to withstand gale force winds on the ocean. And of course composites don’t rust either. So, this is a wonderful application of composites to something that will save a lot of greenhouse gas emissions.
This is another interesting example of the use of composites and wind power on a large cargo ship. The Canopée is the ship that is used by the ESA to carry around the EU rocket Ariane 6. So this one has a very precious cargo. The sails are called “Oceanwings” and apparently in the right wind conditions they can save 50-60% fuel consumption. According to Alizès, the French company that operates the ship and transports the rocket, the savings on average is 30% in fuel consumption. And this is just the first of a series or fleet of these vessels as the French mature the technology to get as much out of the wind as they can.
In yet another example of wind power on board a cargo vessel, this 5 year old bulk carrier (Pyxis Ocean) which is chartered by Cargill is the first vessel to be fitted with “WindWings”, which are just what you would think they are – very large wings. The major difference here is that they are more like two airplane wings, one on each side of that central aerodynamically shaped tower. The development of the WindWings was EU-funded in a project named CHEK which was intended to develop a retrofit solution to already existing cargo vessels to offset as much of the fuel consumption as possible. Just these two wings, which are made out of composites for obvious reasons, will offset as much as 30% of the fuel consumption of the Pyxis Ocean. This vessel made its maiden voyage in the summer of 2023 to test the wings and to prove out the technology. So, this is just the beginning of the use of WindWings, and you may see some of these showing up in your local shipping harbor if you live near a major shipping port like I do in San Diego.
In one final example, this is another company making a retrofit wind propulsion system for large cargo ships that is being tested and demonstrated on a multi-purpose cargo ship. And this is also a bit different than all of the other systems that I have shown in this post. The wing you see on the bow of this ship is from a company in London called GT Green Technologies. They call this thing the Air Wing, and that is exactly what it is. It is not only shaped like an airplane wing it also has flaps and can change its airfoil profile based on the wind conditions and the direction that the ship wants to go. This thing is very much like a really fat but short section of an airplane wing. If you go to the website (https://www.gtgreentechnologies.com/) you can see it turning and the flaps extending so as to maximize the lift that this thing produces. So it is very much like a typical sailboat sail in that it is the lift on the back side of the sail that propels the boat forward. In addition this thing is completely automated so there is no need for the operators of the cargo vessel to make adjustments to the AirWing (they don’t have to trim the sails in other words), because it makes all of the required adjustments on its own to maximize lift.
And if you look a little deeper into the website you will see that the AirWing can be laid down on the deck in a stowed configuration for going under bridges and coming into harbors. GT Green Technologies claims that they can get a 5-30% reduction in fuel consumption, which is in the same range as all of the other retrofit wind propulsion technologies and devices that I have talked about in this post. They have a patent on the Air Wing and have gotten International Maritime Organization and EU regulatory compliance. I’m assuming that this is means that they also have DNV accreditation for this since this is installed a sea going vessel that comes into ports in Europe.
That’s about it for this week. I hope everyone that reads these posts enjoys them as much as I enjoy writing them. This one was especially close to my heart. It touched on both of my over-riding passions, wind energy and the ocean. On top of that I am impressed that shipping companies worldwide are looking into technologies like this that have the potential to make significant reductions in one of the largest greenhouse gas emitting industries, the marine shipping industry.
As usual I will post this first on my website – www.nedpatton.com – as well as on LinkedIn. And if anyone wants to provide comments to this, I welcome them with open arms. Comments, criticisms, etc. are all quite welcome. I really do want to engage in a conversation with all of you about composites because we can learn so much from each other as long as we share our own perspectives.
My second book is now in the hands of my publisher, with just one thing left to do – get a Foreword written. I have asked a colleague of mine that has been in the composites business for over 40 years and is well known in the industry to write it for me, so I’m being patient with him. He brings a lot of credibility to the table.
Most of you know that this second book is about what I have been writing in these newsletters for the last 6 months or so – sustainability of composites and a path to the future that does not include using fossil fuels for either the raw materials or the process energy to make composites. The title of the book, at least for now, is “Close the Circle, A Roadmap to Composite Materials Sustainability.” It truly is a roadmap which I hope that at least at some level the industry will follow. Only time will tell.
Finally, I still need to plug my first book, so here’s the plug. The book pretty much covers the watershed in composites, starting with a brief history of composites, then introducing the Periodic Table and why Carbon is such an important and interesting element. The book was published and made available last August and is available both on Amazon and from McFarland Books – my publisher. However, the best place to get one is to go to my website and buy one. I will send you a signed copy for the same price you would get charged on Amazon for an unsigned one, except that I have to charge for shipping. Anyway, here’s the link to get your signed copy: https://www.nedpatton.com/product-page/the-string-and-glue-of-our-world-signed-copy. And as usual, here’s a picture of the book.
And just FYI – once I get the second book completely in my publisher’s hands, I will start adding an image to this that is the draft of the cover for book number 2. Again our daughter has done such a wonderful job creating the cover art that I’m pretty sure the final product will be very much like what you will see in the coming weeks.
TTFN, Ned
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