Maersk Line is set to chop the bulbous bows off its containerships in a radical move to cut its bunker bills.
It says with a weight of at least 140t this will be a costly retrofit operation which will take around 12 days per ship to complete.
The plan is for the first change, which it estimates will create fuel savings of 1-2%, to take place early in 2013.
It says individual business cases will be developed for each vessel class by monitoring the historic sailing pattern data to examine whether a replacement makes economic sense.
“The purpose of bulbous bows is to even out waves created alongside the vessel, thus reducing the propulsion power needed,” it says.
“Large container vessels are typically designed for speeds of 25 knots, but with today’s slow steaming the bulbous bows are often out of shape and thus generate high levels of resistance.”
The idea to remove bulbous bows is among a number of projects designed to fine-tune Maersk’s fleet using technical solutions that will improve fuel efficiency.
“Retrofits are the biggest thing within energy-efficient shipping right now,” says Steffen Hartvig Nielsen, head of vessel optimisation in Maersk Maritime Technology.
“At Maersk we have worked on this for years, but we keep exploring and evaluating new ideas to make sure we’re at the front of the industry.”
“And with overall fuel consumption costing more than $7bn across the Maersk shipping businesses, even a 1% reduction makes a huge contribution.”
For example, Nielsen says Maersk Line has saved almost $90m in energy costs over three years through higher propulsion efficiency by measuring and challenging the performance of individual vessels.
Writing in the Maersk Post, the Danish shipowner said it also plans to cut out turbochargers that are not needed when slow steaming. Using a valve it can switch the turbo off and on when it is needed saving a further 1.2%.
It also intends to expand its installation of boilers in the chimney of the auxiliary engines in a move to reuse heat and alleviate oil-fired boilers.
“This solution is already in place on many of Maersk Line’s vessels and saves 0.65% of total fuel consumption,” the company said.
Maersk also plans to adjust the engine cooling system to only pump seawater when needed, thus saving pump power usage. This will save around 0.6% of fuel consumption.
Lastly, it will consider installing fins on its ship’s propellers to eliminate the vortex created behind the prop, thus reducing torque and converting it into useful thrust.
This would save 1.3% of fuel with installation currently being investigated both for Maersk Line and Maersk Tankers.
RS Platou Markets estimates that all in all, the various improvements amount to efficiencies of between 4.8% and 5.8% which on fuel costs of $7bn per year is about $350m.
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