Fortnightly maritime news for the industry and PortXL community
SMASH!’s Start-up of the month: Sagar Defence Engineering
Sagar Defense Engineering (SDE) is a top class robotics and autonomous shipping scale-up from India. In 2017 they took part in the Acceleration Program of PortXL Rotterdam . Their innovation “Boat in a box” is an AI-based command and control sharing system that helps transform any existing vessel into three control options: remote, semi-autonomous and fully autonomous. All these scalable autonomy levels are available for marine, underwater and aviation platforms.
Allard Castelein: “Five years ago I wondered where the Uber or Airbnb of the port complex was. Until I realized that we could develop it better ourselves”
The port of Rotterdam, by far the largest in Europe, has 12,500 hectares, 42 kilometers of port length, 150,000 ships and 470 million tons of cargo per year. Building a digital twin from such a mastodon seems impossible. And yet that is exactly what Port of Rotterdam is fully engaged in. “We want to be on the playing field of digitization ourselves and not watch from the sidelines,” says CEO Allard Castelein.
d’Amico: The challenge of decarbonisation
Paolo d’Amico, chief executive officer of d’Amico International Shipping and d’Amico Società di Navigazione group, has no doubt what is the the next big issue to be faced by the industry. “The next challenge for the future? Decarbonisation for sure. We are already thinking at the next stage of fleet renovation taking in mind the emissions will have to be significantly reduced before 2050,” he says in conversation with Maritime CEO.
Nuclear plants could be the ‘perfect component’ for green hydrogen production
Clean energy technology company AES-100 is investigating whether hydrogen production could, under the right conditions, offer a solution for US and European nuclear reactors to retire early and help new reactors run to high efficiencies.
French pioneering sail-powered boxship
Zéphyr & Borée, a young French company specialising in carbon-free transport, has embarked on a new ambitious project to develop the world’s first sailing containership. With project Meltem, the Nantes-based company is developing a 1,830 teu containership, equipped with eight wing-sails. The 185 m long vessel is said to reduce carbon footprint by 80% on a transatlantic journey at a speed of 11 knots.
Why we must regulate grey water now
Regulating grey water together with black water makes the existing performance standard more attainable and practicable. Because grey water is often co-mingled with black water during storage and transfer on board, regulating grey water is essential for effective implementation of the proposed sewage record books. Regulating grey water can ultimately align the maritime industry to the rest of our society in protecting our coastal waters with integrated and consistent regulations, both on land and at sea.
Wärtsilä caps record-breaking year with scrubber order at JMU shipyard
The technology group Wärtsilä managed a record-breaking amount of scrubber deliveries in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the continued interest in exhaust gas abatement systems as long-term solutions for the global fleet.
