The Japanese classification society NK published a 42 page booklet titled “Guidelines for the Prevention of Human Error Aboard Ships”, with the sub heading “Through the Ergonomic Design of Marine Machinery Systems.” According to the guidelines, man-made causes are said to account for 80 per cent of all marine accidents. The guidelines stress the importance of standardization in operating, control, methods, indicators, labeling and color coding to reduce confusion, avoiding the situation when crews familiar with a procedure on one ship are faced with opposites in procedure on another ship. To this end ergonomic design plays an important part so that operation of equipment is easy to understand and logical (even though logic differs by culture). A chapter covers design considerations and recommendations and there is an interesting section titled countermeasures giving advice on risk assessment and the best course of action to prevent (re-) occurrence. The publication includes a number of detailed reports of marine accidents and how to prevent their recurrence.

Mistakes cause accidents. That is the inevitable sequence of events and we humans are the people making the mistakes, but why? What are the reasons that people make mistakes? NK’s guidelines covers how to prevent them, it focused mainly on design of equipment and operator training. Why people make mistakes? - some opinions and answers were given during the June 2010 Members Day of the marine insurance organization Swedish Club. Firstly the world crew shortage estimated at 50,000 seafarers isn’t helping the industry. Good relations, communication and training are conducive to people making the right decisions yet having the confidence to challenge questionable decisions. Capt Gustav Groenberg of Star Cruises, Malaysia pointed out the importance of recruiting the right people, offering them good working conditions to motivate and retain them. Peter Groenwoldt, MD of Harren & Partner Ship Management, Bremen’s opinion is that the reason for a mistake is always, without exception, human error caused by: lack of or poor training, ignorance or an over estimation of their skill and experience. Martin Hernqvist, MD of the Swedish Club Academy touched on the sensitive issue of culture on the individual’s ability to challenge mistakes and unsafe acts quoting the Power Distance Index as a measure of different cultures and their behavior.

The expansion of Emission Control Areas (ECA) in North American and European waters leaves ship owners using HFO with little choice other than to use a more expensive low sulfur HFO, change to MDO completely or use a dual fuel arrangement. The latter not only necessitates installing additional tanks and fuel handling equipment but also requires careful change over procedures to be followed every single time to avoid potential engine problems that can be very severe. An area that a few operators are pioneering is the use of exhaust seawater scrubbers. Hamworthy Krystallon produce a Seawater Scrubber that is designed to operate on a 3.5 per cent S HFO 380 fuel while complying with the EU in-port and MARPOL Annex VI requirement of a 0.1 per cent sulfur fuel. Hamworthy Krystallon early orders from Italian owner have been followed this month by an order to equip four 45,000 dwt ro-ro new builds at Daewoo. Sembawang Shipyard (SSPL), Singapore are interested in a potential retrofit project for seawater scrubbers. Switching to low sulfur fuels will create supply problems according to he International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association

International combustion and engineering consultants Ricardo has been actively developing hybrid propulsion systems with mechanical and electrical energy storage and fuel cell systems. Ricardo believe that advanced propulsion systems can achieve fuel consumption savings between 15 and 25 percent within existing and planned international emissions regulations by implementing next generation energy management and propulsion technologies. To investigate this further, Ricardo has formed a project called the Ship Efficiency & Energy Storage Assessment consortium (SeEsA), covering energy management of propulsion and auxiliary power systems. An early project focus will be on assessing the best energy storage solutions. Under consideration will be conventional, state-of-the art battery and flywheel based systems of which Ricardo has built up considerable expertise in kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS). Their flywheel energy storage system concept called Kinergy, uses a magnetic gearing and coupling mechanism. An automotive project using a mechanical energy storage system has shown to offer several advantages over a battery based electric hybrid system.

Since 2008, there is a UK based shipping environmental charity called Greenwave that strives to develop policies that not only encourage but reward ship owners for the early adoption of technologies designed to reduce emissions. Their emphasis is on new technical solutions rather than improving existing best practices such as hull and propulsion machinery maintenance, weather routing etc.One of two wind related projects is Turbo-foil, which seeks to reduce the aerodynamic drag of ships. While much attention is devoted to hydrodynamic design, the aerodynamic design, streamlining of ships hasn't changed much over the years with the exception of warships, cruise ships and mega yachts. Tests carried out in the wind tunnel at the University of Auckland has identified where the turbulence is greatest, and where fairing should be mounted to reduce drag. According to Greenwave, practical tests demonstrate that Turbo-foil can reduce above deck drag by at least 20 per cent equivalent to an annual saving of 50 tons of fuel and 150 tons of CO2 production.

In an earlier blog Reducing Air Drag, I mentioned the organization Greenwave. They have another wind power project called the Wind Engine.It is a mechanical sail uses the Magnus Effect and in its practical ship application has a tall cylindrical rotor as pioneered by Flettner in 1926. Test carried out by Auckland University, New Zealand, determined that the thrust produced by the Flettner rotor is eight to ten times more than a sail of equal area. Further tests with a 25:1 model ship indicate that wind assisted propulsion can deliver significant fuel and emission reductions with favorable winds and provides good maneuverability including crash stop performance. Lloyd’s Register provided technical assistance and expertise, for the construction of a full sized prototype rotor that was erected on a site in NE England. The next stage of the project is on board ship tests at sea which will be independently monitored by Lloyd's Register and is scheduled to take place during 2010.

The UK Ministry of Defence recently announced that they are going to use ultrasonic anti fouling technology to help maintain the performance of three of its LCVP landing craft, the Australian Customs & Border Protection Service also installed ultrasonic anti fouling equipment on one of its patrol vessels. Several companies producing equipment using the same basic system of transducers attached inside the hull. These vibrations create a strong surface cleaning effect. Algae and slime is broken down and it is the absence of this preliminary surface that prevents marine growth of barnacles, weed etc: all hull materials except wood are suitable for this system. Hull openings such as water jets and tunnel thrusters and appendages e.g. pods and stern drives are also protected. Examples of vessel types for which this system is advertised are trawlers, ferries, tugs, barges and recreational power and sail.

A Canadian physicist and inventor Kazimierz Holubowicz puzzled over the low efficiency of the reciprocating engine operating under normal combustion conditions because he knew that the energy released by fuel exploding, is very much more than under normal combustion. The obvious problem was how to build an engine that would allow fuel to explode (detonate) without the engine exploding! He came up with a design that uses a second free floating piston in a very long cylinder. The free piston oscillates as the main piston is driven downwards turning the crankshaft with the exhaust in the upper cylinder expending most of its energy, harmful SOx and NOx products are dissolved allowing simple treatment and disposal. High torque, low speed and multi fuel capabilities are all attributes claimed for this engine as are low fuel consumption with zero CO and particulate emission. The linear torque vs speed characteristics of this engine make the use of a transmission unnecessary for several applications.

The recently issued annual “Stewardship Report” from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd includes some detail of its efforts and successes in implementing efficiencies across its fleet of 38 cruise ships. Fuel consumption for 2009 is reduced by 3.7 per cent. The reduction is not absolute but expressed as a ratio to the number of available passenger cruise days (APCD). The saving is partly due to the addition to the fleet of two new ships. These efficiency successes follow a number of years of measuring, testing and deploying a variety of systems including improved hydrodynamics, propeller, propulsion and hull designs. Examples of savings are widespread. Three ships have thin film solar panels on their top decks which provides electricity, on other ships incandescent bulbs are being phased out in favor of LEDs. Many of the ships have the ability to use cold sea water cooling when cruising in the Arctic or Baltic to reduce production of chilled water. Royal Caribbean’s goal for 2010 is to further increase its efficiencies.

Automatic optimization of marine diesel engine performance using loop control of the cylinder pressure process has been under development for a number of years at both MAN Diesel & Turbo and Wärtsilä. Targeting the slow speed two stroke engines, the key to successful implementation of automatic loop control is reliable sensors able to accurately measure cylinder pressure, providing key data to evaluate the fuel efficiency and engine conditions. Without automatic loop control, ship engines are tuned manually to operate within safe limits while leaving a safety margin for variations in fuel properties and operating conditions. Engines are poorly balanced between cylinders and are often outside recommended deviation limits resulting in increased fuel consumption and higher CO2 emissions. The benefit of auto tuning is that the cylinder pressures are balance and at the highest acceptable pressure offering reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. MAN Diesel & Turbo, ABB, and A.P.Moller have together been running loop control projects since autumn 2007.