Standardized Equipment News

Floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) may not immediately spring to mind as providing a solution to several of today’s key global challenges – but FNPP development is emerging as a means of decentralized stand-alone production of cost competitive hydrogen-based fuels and clean electricity and water, according to a new report by Intelatus Global Partners.The commercial case for deployment of FNPPs featuring small modular reactors is founded in the growing demand for hydrogen and…

At first, the oil-price and project-cancellation forecasts had hushed the audience at FPSO Europe Congress 2015. Speaker No. 1 had delegates looking at each other for signs of fear. Then, rival contractors — veterans of many a bitter tender — piled on the logic of their own methods for cost-cutting in floating production storage and offloading projects. Rather than stamp out competing arguments, a relentless costs discussion had another, unexpected effect. It lifted the gloom and crystallized the opportunity at hand to engineer FPSO demand.

Early planning, engagement with competent partners will be the key to timely compliance. The May announcement that W&O Supply had been named as the exclusive distributor of Hyde Marine’s GUARDIAN Ballast Water Treatment Systems (BWT) in the U.S. and Canada may seem like routine news. After all, W&O Supply is one of the world’s largest marine suppliers and has many such agreements in place, covering a wide range of equipment. This agreement, however, comes in advance of Ballast Water Treatment deadlines looming large in the porthole. It also lays out the blueprint for owners and operators to move forward on the complicated process of achieving regulatory compliance with both Coast Guard and IMO mandates. Florida-based W&O will begin selling Hyde GUARDIAN BWTS effective immediately.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has been selected to supply integrated bridge systems (IBS) for Royal Caribbean’s Genesis Project shipbuilding program. Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine business unit has been awarded a contract to supply a complete integrated suite of navigation, communication and control systems for the new giant cruise ships, which will be built at Aker Yards in Finland. The Genesis Project integrated bridge systems will be based on Sperry Marine’s VisionMaster FT technology, and will include a total of 13 TotalWatch multi-function workstations on the bridge, as well as a TabletBridge wireless node in the captain’s cabin.

Recent trends in the shipping industry are changing how suppliers of marine equipment handle customer support. With more standardized equipment, the availability of increasingly sophisticated marine electronic systems, smaller crews and tighter deadlines, shipping companies have come to expect a higher grade of customer support available all over the world, year round. "We're seeing a demand for better, faster and comprehensive global service," said Dag Pettersen, president customer support for Kongsberg Norcontrol AS, a leading provider of marine navigation and control systems for the shipping industry. While today's advanced equipment is more reliable and requires fewer spare parts than ever before…