Marine

Giant supertanker uses 9.8% less fuel thanks to 130-foot sails

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The M/V New Aden – a sail-assisted supertanker – has been delivered in China
China Classification Society
The M/V New Aden – a sail-assisted supertanker – has been delivered in China
China Classification Society
Four relatively modest 40-meter sails will reduce the New Aden's fuel consumption by nearly 10% on long voyages
China Classification Society
The New Aden was launched and named on September 24, 2022
China Classification Society
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As the shipping industry moves to decarbonize, huge sails could be making a comeback. The China Merchant Energy Shipping company (CMES) has taken delivery of a new supertanker, whose four large sails will cut down average fuel consumption by nearly 10%.

Sails, of course, were the primary source of power for large ships for thousands of years. Then German inventor Rudolf Diesel got his first engine up and running in 1897, and the first diesel-powered ships took to the water in 1903. Safer and more efficient than steam engines, they slowly took over the shipping world and have been a pillar of international commerce ever since. They're filthy, though, with some 50,000-odd merchant ships in service contributing around 1.7% of global greenhouse emissions, and while methanol and ammonia are viewed as promising cleaner energy alternatives, the technology is far from settled at this point.

Sails, however, are very well understood, and for at least 10 years we've been seeing concepts and plans to bring large airfoils back to the cargo and passenger shipping industries. Ireland's B9 Shipping put forth the idea of a 100% sail-powered cargo ship back in 2012, although it doesn't seem much has come of it. Wallenius offshoot Oceanbird has now bumped back the launch date for its first retractable rigid sail-powered ship from 2024 to 2026.

But China's Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co (DSIC) has now delivered. The M/V "New Aden" is a 333-meter (1,093-ft) supertanker in the "very large crude carrier" class. Launched on September 24, this colossus runs a relatively modest, but groundbreaking wind power system. Four retractable sails, each rising 40 m (130 ft) from the deck and presenting a 1,200-sq-m (~13,000-sq-ft) surface, are mounted near the middle of the long deck.

Four relatively modest 40-meter sails will reduce the New Aden's fuel consumption by nearly 10% on long voyages
China Classification Society

These lightweight, corrosion-resistant carbon fiber composite blades can be raised or lowered at the touch of a button. An "Aerofoil Sails Intelligent Control" system is designed to constantly monitor the prevailing conditions, as well as navigation data, and continually adjust the angle of the sails to make maximal use of available wind.

As a relatively small implementation of the auto-sailing concept, this system isn't designed to be the primary driver. The ship will still burn lots of diesel. But on an example shipping route between the Middle East and Far East, it's expected to reduce average fuel consumption by more than 9.8%, saving an estimated 2,900 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each trip.

The New Aden is a crude oil supertanker, so for all its promise as a testbed for green technology, its primary purpose is still to ferry somewhere around two million barrels of heavily polluting fossil fuel around the world. But whether or not you'd view it as a greenwashing exercise, it'll clearly prove – or disprove – the economics involved with adding these huge sail systems to large, modern ships, and is thus an impressive achievement and a significant piece of technology.

Source: China Classification Society

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12 comments
The Doubter
A concept which seems to be quite viable
rgooding
Ironically this first use is going to make it MORE profitable to ship fossil fuels - thus making more $$ for fossil fuel companies who usually charter these boats rather than own them and can claim lower running costs so less $$ paid to charter and therefore making it less likely for them to CONSERVE and CONVERT to alternative energy sources since they'll make more $$ themselves doing what they do now.
The only immediate winner is the shipping company themselves as they're running costs go down (and 2ndly the environment as the ship itself is burning less fuel) and hopefully they're shipping rates are fixed so this saving comes to their bottom line.
Can't see any -ve with this applied to shipping food however!

No mention of the additional costs vs traditional ship in building however it must make sense as the life of these vessels i think is about 3 decades??
Kpar
This really is a no-brainer, I have been advocating this "hybrid" concept for decades. Not as a "primary" mover, but as a supplement to save fuel. I have also similar ideas about hybrid airships- dual H2 and He lift bags (inert He in the outer bags, H2 in the inner bags, forming a barrier from the O2 in the air) and heat exchangers to raise/lower the pressure in the H2 bags to adjust lift.
darkcook
This is a step in the right direction. A 10% reduction in fuel is nothing to quibble with. And for the for first commercial example, this is a viable concept. Going to all electric ships is ludicrous. But supplementing power and reducing current consumption could have noticeable impacts on a commercial operator's fuel budget. A+ for ingenuity and problem solving.
meofbillions
It's a good development because in not so many years, instead of fossil fuels, the ship will be transporting hydrogen and hydrogen-derived liquid fuels such as ammonia and methanol.
Expanded Viewpoint
Yeah, while all of this may look good on paper, it's just a fleeting glimpse of what MIGHT be, if it wasn't for that pesky little thing called hyperinflation that Germany is starting to go through again (the last time was 1921-1923) and China is about to go through too. Who knows whose turn it will be after them? Right now, 1 in 6 American households are at least one month behind in their electricity bill payments, and PG&E said that since February of 2020, their number of delinquent accounts has gone up 40%! When the ratepayers get cut off for being non-payers, and the hyperinflation makes the Carbon based fuels the power plants burn too expensive to buy in previous quantities, how will the bills get paid? Europe is already looking at having cell phone towers going dark due to power shortages this winter. Whatcha gonna do when the calls won't go through?? How will that crude oil in the tankers get unloaded and then refined into Diesel fuel and gasoline etc. when the power plants are cold? Suddenly, saving 10% of the fuel burned in a ship doesn't seem to be very impressive, does it?
Nelson Hyde Chick
It seems they had a lot more room for more sales, thus possibly lowering thweir fuel consumption even more.
Excalibur
So 8 sails would have meant 20% fuel saving then, making it a much more attractive proposition.. why didn't that happen?
moreover
Moving fossil fuels makes up 40% of all global shipping. As societies decarbonize and use more locally produced electricity, especially for transportation, we'll see a huge chunk of shipping simply disappear.
Aross
This certainly shows how efficient and Eco friendly sail/wind power is. Maybe it is time to bring back the clipper ships and dump the dirty fuel guzzling monsters for all cargo movement.