Gradually the fuel needed to move a tonne
of cargo 1,000 miles was reduced, currently by 97%. Te progress is tracked in Table 1, column 16 which shows the fuel efficiency of cargo liners since 1855. Fuel per thousand ton-miles fell from 88.9kg in 1855 to 2.6kg in 2014, and the speed has increased from 7.5knots to 23knots (close to 30mph). So the good news is that marine engineers and naval architects did a good job in building better ships. Unfortunately there is some bad news too.
Aſter 150 years the physical technology has been squeezed so hard that there is not much leſt to squeeze. On the engineering front, diesel engines are close to their theoretical energy conversion ceiling and for 30 years there has been little efficiency improvement. For example the fuel consumption of 60,000 DWT bulk carriers delivered has been around 32 to 33tonnes per day since the late 1980s (Figure 1). Recent eco-ships claim about 28tonnes per
day, but this is mainly due to fine tuning in response to high fuel prices rather than any fundamental improvements in efficiency. Naval architects are still designing ever bigger ships, but the economies of scale diminish with each size increment as the size and fuel efficiency chart in Figure 2 (see page 20) suggests. However, the pressures for improvement
continue relentlessly. One is from the high cost of fossil fuels; another from the regulation of emissions from engines burning fossil fuels; thirdly the IMO commitment to cut the carbon footprint generated by moving 10+ billion tonnes of cargo a year by 50%; and finally people – the crew and customers
Figure 1: Fuel consumption static since 1980s
want a better deal. But, the technology wave the industry started surfing 150 years ago is running out of steam, so each step along this this well-trodden path of improving the hardware gets smaller.
How digital technology delivers change To take bigger steps down the road, we need to face an uncomfortable truth. Te shipping business today is pre-occupied with ships and this clouds our judgement. Ships are only one part of the inter-continental transport business which starts at the origin of the cargo and ends at its destination – it’s a total package, or at least it should be4
. But, we are much better at
measuring the performance of the ships than the performance of the total transport service.
Table 1: Fuel consumption of typical cargo liners 1855-2013 So in future the industry must find a better
way and the best technology deal on offer is the digital revolution. Other industries certainly think so. If we look at the work being done in the car industry and the airline industry, the systematic application of digital technology can improve many aspects of the transport performance. Add database technology and a new organisational structure to tighten up ship operations and in due course the whole door to door transport operation. The automation of engine rooms and
navigation has been around for years, but the new digital technology is dramatically better, cheaper and easier to tie into semi-intelligent systems. Google’s achievements with their self-driving car, for example, seemed impossible a decade ago.
The Naval Architect January 2015
19
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