CIMAC Circle at NorShipping 2017

In a first initiative of its kind, a CIMAC Circle was held at Nor-Shipping 2017 with the theme “Green Shipping – What is it all About?” with specialists from the Engine industry addressing an eagerly awaited audience regarding the future of shipping, focusing on environmentally sustainable technologies and solutions.

The panel discussion was chaired by Peter Koch from Rolls Royce Engines Bergen, who brought to the table a varied perspective thanks to his time as a University researcher as well as working in the Engines industry. The panel was completed by the following specialists from relevant fields of expertise:

Introducing the subject, Dr. Koch mentioned that the CIMAC Circle with its topic aligned itself very well with the general topic of Nor-Shipping 2017 – ‘Introduction to Catalyst for Change’, and spoke briefly about the importance of such a discourse in the shipping industry today. He put forth the challenge to the panelists about the incentives, hurdles of green shipping and about how greener could we, the shipping industry, get to?   

Prof. Kyrtatos presented the example of the R&D program ‘Hercules’ to show the progression of how ‘green’ engines are taking a center stage today and will continue to do so in the future, underlining some of the technological strides such as multi-stage turbocharging, fuel flexibilities with fuel-injection optimisations, SCR and EGR technologies etc. Kjeld Aabo mentioned that the global sulphur cap 2020 of 0.5% limit of sulphur in fuels is unsettling to the industry at first but will pave the way for alternative solutions with a focus on greener engines. He touched upon the CIMAC ‘Fuels’ working group that is working extremely closely in these areas. Stine Mundal talked in length about the regulatory perspective, and stated that increasing societal and regulatory pressure will force shipping to lower its environmental impact, resulting in a more demanding operational framework with higher expectations. Tor Øyvind Ask from the shipping company Solvang ASA, presented a combined exhaust gas cleaning (EGC) and recirculation (EGR) system that will enable new vessels to comply with the global sulphur cap 2020 while running on heavy fuel oil, after it was successfully tested onboard the ‘Clipper Harald’, one of Solvang’s most reliable LPG tankers. And lastly, Stefan Müller dwelled more into the avenues that could be looked into regarding green shipping such as exhaust gas aftertreatment solutions, alternative fuels, electrification, digitalisation and future propulsion systems that would help evolve the classical combustion engine to a fully integrated and intelligent hybrid propulsion system.          

The fruitful discussions were followed by keenly observed questions from the audience. To improve the image of the shipping industry in light of the global trend towards more environmentally aware and responsible citizens were deliberated deeply as the audience sought definitive roadmaps of what the industry is currently prepared to undertake with regards to the topic. The panelists concurred that environmentally viable solutions is the only way ahead to the future of the shipping industry and both the technology providers as well as the end-users need to co-operate relentlessly to achieve the common goals to sustainability.