The future of Shipping


Conoship International G


uus Van Der Bles, Director Development at Dutch design and engineering firm Conoship International outlines the organisation’s increasing involvement in the energy transition.


What factors influenced Conoship’s switch to sustainable solutions?


Guus: “Innovation and sustainability is in our DNA. These factors have always been important in designing innovative ships. But in the last decade we have dared to go a step further: researching challenging innovations that may not be financially viable yet, but could contribute to solving the climate problem in the future.


“Ten years ago we started our R&D projects on wind propulsion, leading to the eConowind unit and VentiFoils for auxiliary wind propulsion. Our first steps with seagoing vessels sailing on LNG however were already taken in 2003, with the development of the LNG tanker ‘Pioneer Knutsen’. Currently we are investigating the possibilities of capturing CO2


from exhaust


gases from LNG fuelled vessels and we are developing a zero-emission concept that can sail completely emission-free by combining VentiFoils with batteries and hydrogen.”


How will your Maritime Innovation Award for the eConowind unit help in the development of wind assistance for ships?


Guus: “Winning the Award has above all generated attention and recognition for the value of wind propulsion for shipping. At conferences we make it clear that wind assisted propulsion is a real and actual solution to the climate problem. It is one of few retrofittable solutions that can help to


How do you imagine shipping in 10 years - radical transition or smooth adaption?


Guus: “We expect various scenarios for the process of turning oceangoing vessels green. Although there will be ‘radical’ (subsidised), zero-emission pilot projects, mainstream oceangoing shipping will adapt much slower. This may look like a ‘smooth adaptation’, but when pilot projects show that a solution has become ‘proven economical technology’ the desired application may lead to a ‘radical transition’. This is also necessary in view of political and public opinion and the IMO's ambitions.


realise the IMO’s ambition to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030. Ten years of


research have gone into the system and now the first units are operational. More and more of our clients are interested in applying VentiFoils on their ships and want to know what savings this can bring. This stimulates further development and optimisation exponentially.”


“In the near future we expect this for the VentiFoils and wind propulsion, like we now see in LNG. Actually about 178 ships are fuelled by LNG, with another 180 on order. The transition is gaining speed and can become quite ‘radical’, so we see our vision becoming a reality.”


www.conoship.com


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