Strathclyde University News

There is hydrodynamic solution that delivers multiple benefits for ship owners facing increasingly tough regulatory requirements and rising operational costs, writes Dr. Batuhan Aktas*One area of ship operations that has attracted much attention in recent years due to the possibilities it represents for emissions reduction is that of cavitation. During ship operations, cavitation occurs because of vortices that build up and cause bubbles to collapse under the ship’s propeller. The results of this process include increased noise, vibration and energy usage.

Global controls technology company Proserv has acquired a minority stake in Glasgow-based power system monitoring expert, Synaptec, with whom it had initially formed a strategic alliance in October 2020 to drive forward the innovation of disruptive condition-monitoring technologies for the energy sector.Synaptec was developed as a spin-out business from Strathclyde University in 2014 with its management team, Board of Directors, and Advisory Board comprising former leaders from the power sector…

A project to produce a novel emissions-slashing hydrogen passenger ferry has been granted €8 million ($9.4 million) in European funding as the Norwegian government announces strengthened focus on development and commercialization of hydrogen as a carbon-neutral fuel.The HySHIP project involves 14 European partners collaborating on the design and construction of a new ro-ro demonstration vessel running on liquid green hydrogen (LH2), as well as the establishment of a viable LH2 supply chain and bunkering platform.

A group lead by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, a global asset manager, had reached an agreement to buy the Australian port and railroad operator Asciano for about $8.8 billion in cash and stock, and that it was shopping for ports farther afield in a push to expand, reports NY Times. Brookfield says the acquisition of Patrick terminal will lay the foundation for a global container terminal presence, building on its facilities at Teesport, U.K., and the Port of Los Angeles. The company also hopes to leverage Patrick’s experience with automating port operations.

Dominic Tasker has been hired as a new naval architect at Silverstream Technologies, a developer of air lubrication technology for the shipping industry. Silverstream said the move is in line with its strategy for infrastructure expansion following the company’s first commercial installation of the Silverstream System with Norwegian Cruise Lines, and the development of a significant pipeline of further orders. Tasker joins Silverstream Technologies from global maritime consultancy Brookes Bell…

More than 250 top-level delegates attended trade association Interferry’s 38th annual conference in Malta to debate the major factors affecting ferry operations around the world. Under a new format mixing presentations with panel discussions and audience input, the event underlined the diversity of political, technical, operational and commercial issues challenging the industry. Among several sessions focused on safety, a former airline pilot confirmed the alarming certainty of human error…

The trade association event takes place in Malta from October 5-9 with an agenda dominated by safety issues. Insights on how the aviation industry builds and maintains safety culture will come from special guest speaker Jarle Gimmestad of Norway-based operational safety consultancy Gimmestad AS. He was previously with Scandinavian airline SAS as a captain and then as human factors and crew resource manager, which included working with the accident investigation group. Pointing to the continuously improving safety record of air travel, he noted, “There is a significant tendency - while undesired events used to be caused by technical insufficiency, we now realize that most are contributed by human error. We have left the myth of perfection. Human error is a natural part of human behavior.

Three scenarios shaping the future of the world’s maritime industries. Report issued  at events in Singapore and London indicates strong growth for the maritime sector in the years up to 2030 and an even bigger role for China in the maritime world, as seaborne trade increases from 9 billion tonnes annually to between 19-24 billion tonnes. Lloyd’s Register, Qinetiq and Strathclyde University has released Global Marine Trends 2030, a report based on two years of research into the future of the maritime industries.

Norwegian-led consortium targets the development of cost-effective pre-installed seabed foundations for offshore wind. NorWind Installer AS, together with partners OWEC Tower AS, Vestavind Offshore AS, MENCK GmbH, BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH, Strathclyde University, Glasgow and the Centre for Integrated Petroleum Research (CIPR) at UNI Research, have been awarded support from the Norwegian Research Council for an innovation project for renewable energy. “The project will develop new and improved solutions for the location, design and installation of pre-installed seabed foundations for offshore wind turbines”, says Ivan Østvik at NorWind Installer who has been the R&D project developer.

As a result of the debate under Item 5 at the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 78), the industry finally has an agreement which removes the mandated requirement for bulk carriers of LOA150m to be built according to an approved double side skin design. Back in May 2002, MSC 75 developed a preliminary list of recommendations for decision-making, of which the requirement for future bulk carriers to be built to double side skin construction was high on the list. A number of Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) studies were completed to arrive at this conclusion and the decision was subsequently taken at MSC 76 to make double side skin construction mandatory at a time in the future to be decided. It was expected that the requirement would be effective from late 2006 or 2007.