Ulf Tudem News

Firefighting led a stream of topical debate at trade association Interferry’s 40th annual conference in Copenhagen last week – but not before a record 342 delegates came under fire from a leading Green politician claiming that ‘shipping is currently one of the unaddressed areas of air pollution’. Michael Cramer, German chair of the European Parliament’s transport and tourism committee, delivered a stinging opening address demanding that the ferry and shipping sectors become more environmentally sustainable. He said ‘most vessels are like hazardous waste incinerators because they burn heavy fuel oil which should be processed as highly toxic waste but is usually exhaled without sufficient filtering’.

The first remote-controlled ferry demonstrator could hit the water within four to five years thanks to a new wave of research into operational efficiency based on ship intelligence solutions. The prediction from Oskar Levander, VP for innovation, engineering & technology at Rolls-Royce Marine in Finland, will be explored at next month’s 40th annual Interferry conference in Copenhagen, where technical innovations will be a central theme of the trade association’s agenda. Levander will suggest that the maritime industry is at the dawn of an era in which ship intelligence is one of the main technology trends – driving advances such as increased automation, smart controls, robotics, optimization/decision support tools, equipment/system health management and predictive maintenance schemes.

Alnmaritec announced that it has recently signed a collaboration agreement with the Norwegian Company Effect Ships International (ESI) to exploit the technological and market opportunities related to the commercial application of ESI’s patented Air Supported Vessel (ASV) technology. The agreement gives Alnmaritec the rights in the U.K. to the manufacture and sales of vessels utilizing this technology with the possibility to market and sell these vessels worldwide and provides…

Effect Ships International AS (ESI) is reporting extraordinary results from tank testing of two Air Supported Vessel (ASV) hull forms, a catamaran- and a mono candidate. A reduction in hull resistance of up to 50%; or more than 40%  net powering cut, after deduction of fan powering, has been documented with the ASV mono concept. Lately, air assisted hulls forms have gained increasingly more interest from the maritime sector. In December 2011, Marine Link, presented results from Marin on air lubrication techniques…