IMO 2020: Hydrogen's Future in Maritime
Hydrogen fuel cell technology to Satisfy Future IMO RequirementsWith an ongoing push by the maritime community to reduce ship emissions to satisfy IMO MARPOL Annex VI regulations and limit the sulfur content of ships from 01 January 2020 to 0.5 percent world-wide, many ship owners are starting to consider hydrogen fuel cell technology to satisfy evolving emissions regulations. To date, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on research programs to utilize hydrogen fuel cells for transportation. Several maritime powers including the European Union, the United States and Japan have initiated pilot programs to assess the feasibility of maritime hydrogen to reduce emissions while maintaining cost parity with traditional propulsion technology.
UNO gets $3.6m Grant for Welding Robot Tech
The University of New Orleans received a $3.6m grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects agency last week to develop automated tools for programming robots to weld ship components. The grant is funded by the Office of Naval Research. Much of the work will take place at the UNO Maritime Technology Center of Excellence at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Avondale Operation. The new tool will program the robots directly from a three-dimensional model. UNO will work with Sandia National Labs in New Mexico and Spatial Corporation, a Colorado-based industrial software business that specializes in three-dimensional models, as well as several major shipyards to improve current technology, Trahan said.
