Research Groups News

This is the dawning of the age of AI and Big Data, huge agglomerations of new and transformative energy; almost self-generating, always strengthening and pulling at the reins, seeking to break free and run, a prospect both exciting and terrifying. That image can imply a human is holding the reins. How quaint: these days, AI itself may be holding the reins.In a review of innovation in 2023 – across any industrial or economic sector, not just maritime – AI looms large, a game-changer equivalent to IBM’s programming advances in the 1940s.

A group of world leading shipping companies including NYK, Sovcomflot, Knutsen OAS and Ardmore, ship builders, including DSME and the mining company Vale, have therefore teamed up with Denmark based Maritime Development Center to develop such an on-board carbon capture and storage solution in a project named decarbonICE.DecarbonICE is based on two new main ideas for the capture and storage part, respectively. The CO2 and other GHG's in the ship exhaust are captured on board in a cryogenic process and turned into dry ice.Proven offshore technology is then applied during normal ship operations to transport the dry ice into the seafloor sediments.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) held a high-level workshop on the outlook for offshore wind energy yesterday (May 13), bringing together 80 senior representatives from government, the private sector, research groups, academia and international organisations.Participants joined from countries around the world, including many from Europe, the United States, Japan and China, said a press release from the Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization which works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy.Altogether, the countries represented at the workshop account for 97% of current and planned offshore wind development.Technological improvements for offshore wind are improving performance and lowering the costs of the electricity it produces…

How can green technology and innovation help deliver International Maritime Organization (IMO) ’s initial strategy on reducing GHG emissions from ships?A press note from the UN body said that this was one of the questions being addressed this week at the Greentech in Shipping Global Forum in Hamburg, Germany (26-27 February).Speaking at the conference, IMO’s Camille Bourgeon addressed maritime sector experts in green technology and innovation, saying that their work will be important in delivering IMO’s Initial GHG Strategy and achieving the goal to make shipping carbon free.The Strategy, adopted by IMO Member States last year, makes a firm commitment to a complete phase out of GHG emissions from ships…

Marine ecosystems provide us with food and raw materials, they have an impact on air quality and global climate, they break down harmful substances and serve as places of recreation and tourism. The functioning of these ecosystems – and thus also the basis for human well-being – depends on the biological diversity of the oceans. The way climate change and human influences change marine biodiversity will in future be examined by scientists in a new institute: as was recently decided by the senate of the Helmholtz Association, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity will be set up next year in Oldenburg. The new institute will pool and expand the research excellence in this field of the University of Oldenburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute…

DNV GL is partnering with the EXPOSED Aquaculture Operations Centre, with the aim to make fish farming safer and more sustainable. EXPOSED is a Centre for Research based Innovation with the main objective to develop knowledge and technologies for exposed aquaculture operations, enabling a sustainable expansion of the fish farming industry. Developing aquaculture for the future brings together competencies from different branches of DNV GL, including DNV GL Noomas, Maritime and Oil & Gas. Through the partnership, DNV GL will engage in projects focusing on development of regulations of the aquaculture industry in exposed areas, safety and risk management of marine structures and operations, and design methodology and requirements for novel fish farm concepts.

As part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to create American jobs, cut carbon pollution and develop domestic energy sources, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced today it has taken an important step toward issuing a research lease for a facility to test utility-scale wave energy devices in federal waters off Oregon. The non-competitive lease would be for the offshore area where the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center at Oregon State University (Center) would site the hydrokinetic energy research project.

SP Fire Technology’s involvement in fire-resistant lightweight materials for marine applications has contributed to the construction of several smaller lightweight vessels, and to the current discussion within the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of how larger ocean-going vessels could be built using plastic composites. 2005 saw the start of the LÄSS project, which clearly showed the potential economic and environmental benefits of using lightweight materials such as aluminum or fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite for the construction of ships.

With new experimental facilities under construction at HR Wallingford, the foundations are in place for another two decades of successful collaboration between HR Wallingford’s Professor Richard Whitehouse and University College London’s Professor Richard Simons. Richard Whitehouse and Richard Simons know first-hand the value of long term collaboration in experimental research. They first worked together in 1991 in the “Hippo Tank” at HR Wallingford looking at forces created on the seabed by waves and currents.

The MacArtney Group announced the delivery of a CORMAC 4 Stainless Steel Winch system to the Institute of Geosciences at the Christian Albrechts University of Kiel. The winch system, which was acquired through German MacArtney Group member, MBT GmbH, will be put to use aboard various research vessels, hereunder the R/V Alkor, which is operated by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel. Housed within a self-contained and compact stainless steel structure, the CORMAC winch is rugged…

The research vessel Polarstern has left Bremerhaven on course for the Arctic with 44 expedition participants from institutions from Germany, Belgium, USA and the United Kingdom who will spend around one month on board. Their main study area is the Fram Strait between Spitsbergen and Greenland where they will conduct long-term oceanographic measurements. The Fram Strait is the only deep sea water connection between the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic. How much water is exchanged between these two seas and what heat and salt transport is associated with this?

A new institute dedicated to pioneering research and technology for the marine sector has been launched at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Scotland's Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Anne Glover, met with researchers from the institute, which aims to contribute to the UK's marine economy by providing industry and government with cutting-edge research into marine energy, the environment and transport. The Strathclyde Marine Institute will combine expertise from the fields of engineering…

As dot-com firms that lacked a solid foundation disappeared from the landscape, the strongest are left standing amid the rubble. It is worth noting that at the height of the 'dot-com' boom and phenomenal statistics from various research groups, Gartner Group predicted that 75 percent of e-business projects would fail because of a lack of understanding of technology and poor business planning. Of the companies predominately built on smaller amounts of capital from within the industry such as Oslo, Norway-based MarineProvider — from day one there was a vested interest in not only the day-day operations of the company via its investors, but there was a mission that MarineProvider had — which was to assist companies already within the maritime community.