In June 2019, the Grimaldi Group’s Grande Portogallo, a 165-metre-long Pure Car & Truck Carrier fitted with a Controllable Pitch Propeller (CPP), set sail with a ground-breaking piece of technology onboard. This vessel had on-board a pre-swirl stator (PSS) designed for CPP application that influences water flow to the propeller. Being able to control the inflow of water, say the device’s designers, has been scientifically proven to lead to less fuel consumption improving the vessel’s energy savings. This has never been investigated for CPPs, making this a truly innovative product.

The Port of Antwerp is working with UAntwerp on research into autonomous shipping, but unlike other projects, their focus is on the critical but less high-profile segment of inland shipping. Inspired by the way bats see the world, the project is using 3D sonar sensors to develop automated navigation technology.  Like the mammals, they are using a form of echolocation technology where they emit sound waves, and when those waves hit objects they produce echoes that the mammals use to avoid obstacles.

Canadian mining company VanadiumCorp announced this week that it has reached an agreement with a Dutch naval architect and a German shipowner on the development and testing of a novel energy storage system for shipboard use. 

Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association (ZESTAs) are the first to announce an international commercial shipping event coinciding with COP 26 to be held in Glasgow on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of November.  COP26—Shipping’s Voyage to Zero will feature zero emission ship technologies and zero emission ship designs as well as conduct a deep dive into the policy and financial frameworks that will support shipping’s voyage to zero.

Fluechem, the UK based specialist supplier of chemical bunkering solutions has launched a revolutionary new system that allows shipping owners to create their own Urea solution onboard.

The company, which specialises in auxillary wind propulsion systems, said the agreement heralds the first installation of Norsepower’s rotor sails on a bulk carrier. With the industry gearing to meet IMO’s 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets, the company commented that the Rotor Sail technology is adaptable and provides owners and operators with an emissions reducing option for both newbuilds and retrofits across different vessel types.

A new surveillance technology developed by the maritime analytics and data leader, GateHouse Maritime, in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark will help the Danish Defence monitor the Arctic Ocean. The technology is built to identify illegal ships without or turned off Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders or so-called dark ships.