Every two years there is a High Speed Boat Operations conference (HSBO 2010) with the participants covering a wide area of expertise from manufacturers, naval architects, operators and the medical profession – all concerned with high speed vessels. Improvements to hull design and engine performance permits these craft to go at ever increasing speeds. There has been much recent research on the subject of injuries and shock mitigation concerned with the operation of high speed craft. Adopting the traditional standing can result in broken bones or spinal injuries. A better solution, assuming good visibility is the use of special seats with built in shock absorbers.

Projects running with NYK Line ships under the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism are investigating technological developments to curtail CO2 emissions from marine vessels. In the main project, two NYK ships, are equipped with an air blower to supply air to the vessel's bottom to reduce frictional resistance. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries supplied the engines and is also participating in the experiment. It was decided that, a module carrier, would be best type of vessel for this experiment. she has a wide, shallow-draft hull minimizing the energy required by the electrically blower supplying air to the vessel's bottom and should better retain the supplied air under the vessel's bottom.

At last month’s International Tug & Salvage Conference, Corvus Energy Ltd presented a paper on a new battery type – Nickel Manganese Cobalt , NMC for short, that is particularly good for propulsion applications. It uses safe chemistry that is stable and reliable. is sealed and is compact. It can deliver a high power until fully discharge, doesn't’t deteriorate if left uncharged and hardly looses its charge over time. What does this mean for the marine industry? One example was the announcement at the Conference of an all electric tug boat, so far it is only for training purposes but heralds the beginning of a new era of electric driven vessels whether pure electric drive or hybrid diesel electric.

Lower exhaust emissions of large bore diesel engines without after treatment, can be realized by increasing the mean effective pressure. One way to achieve a higher m.e.p. is to increase the boost pressure of the turbocharger however standard turbo designs are already at or approaching the limit of their capability to go from atmospheric pressure to the desired boost pressure in one unit: the solution is therefore to use two turbo stages. Simply, it comprises a low pressure turbine feeding via an inter cooler a second high pressure turbine which in turn passes through a second inter cooler to the engine. Control of a two stage turbo system including the suppression of compressor surging.is complex and is effected with the aid of variable nozzle rings (VTA) and bypasses. MAN Diesel & Turbo have recently announced their own series of two-stage turbos called the New TCX Generation. Using a configuration with the turbos at 90 degrees to each to provides a compact solution and reduce the amount of piping.

As emission requirements become stricter as the years pass, the question arises, what to do with older engines. The EPA Marine Engine Re manufacture Program introduces a law effective March 2008 to force operators of older ship engines to upgrade them to reduce emissions. The rules are rather limited, specifying that the improvement must reduce particulates (PM) by at least 25 per cent, that the engines concerned are commercial (not recreational) applications, manufactured after 1973, over 600kW, cylinder displacement under 30 liters and be a US flagged vessel. The upgrade only becomes compulsory if there is an EPA approved upgrade available and must be carried out at the next scheduled ‘re manufacturing event’ e.g. replacing cylinder liners. Changing many parts to effectively convert an old engine into a new model is usually not economic, nevertheless changing some parts can make a significant reduction in emissions. Although other ways to achieve the same end of reduced emissions are changing fuels, fuel additives or adopting an after treatment system.

One of the many areas of interest as part of the Danish Greenship Project is reducing the energy consumption of the engine cooling systems. For the investigation, a MAN B&W engine in a 35,000 dwt bulk carrier is used to study both sea water and lubrication oil cooling systems. Project studies indicate that there is an unnecessarily high pressure drop and therefore flow resistance in the sea water cooling circuit resulting in wasteful energy consumption. By specifying a larger capacity heat exchanger the flow resistance would decrease permitting the use of smaller pumps with an energy saving that could be as much as 90 per cent and save 160 tons of CO2 per pump per year! Using a different type of oil pump and / or optimizing the flow through the lubricating oil recirculation system, around five per cent of energy can be saved, equivalent to more than 110 tons of CO2 per annum.

A Green Ship Event in Rotterdam hosted by the company Imtech. closed with a lively discussion following a series of “green” presentations..Although the term “Green Ship” is a fashionable term, it is very loose in meaning as it is so far undefined. When a ship is called “green” is it light green or dark green, and green in which respects? If it is only the hull color, then that is all it is but so often it is used to suggest the ship is somehow clean or non-polluting or low on emissions, exhaust or otherwise. Can you have a green ship without doing an audit of the whole life of the ship from conception through building, its life at sea and finally its end? Another important aspect is training, the ship can have several green features but if the crew doesn’t know how to use them, they won’t be used, so the greenness will fade. So in conclusion green is not an absolute state but more a relevant term. It would be better if we all started using the term “greener”, rather than green!

Making possible the growth in Condition CM/CBM to improve reliability and maintenance on board ships is the development of computers connecting to compact sensors using, wired or wireless communications. The Silicon Valley-based SRI International, has developed advanced Vibration Imaging Technology (VIT). SRI recently granted Sensors Inc. a global manufacturing and distribution license to develop a diagnostic system using their VIT. The system uses a special camera and patented software enabling a computer to detect and analyze vibrations on the surface of objects in its field of view. No special lighting or physical connection to the object(s) is required. The opportunities for monitoring marine propulsion and auxiliary applications are indeed large. The system is so sensitive that images can be monitored pixel by pixel and any variation is immediately detected. Used to monitor the mechanical health of machinery with rotating parts, abnormal vibrations are immediately recognized by the system and may indicate intervention or shut down is required.