May 19, 2016

 

Making Smart Use of the Environment in Shipping

presented by Guilhem Gaillarde, Head of Ships Department at Maritime Research Institute

During the Greek Section’s ninth and final technical meeting for the 2015-2016 season on 19 May 2016 Guilhem Gaillarde, Head of Ships Department at Maritime Research Institute, made a presentation on the efficient use of environment for the benefit of shipping.

Mr. Gaillarde started his presentation by making reference to the increasing possibilities, offered by wind propulsion to maritime transportation during the last 5 years. He presented its recent evolution, suggesting that the emerging industry has matured in a rapid way, and started proposing viable solutions.

However, he also referred to the challenges that still need to be met, as ship owners, who dare to try it, have a rather experimental, or even sometimes marketing approach, while potential in terms of fuel reduction can reach today realistically 5 to 10%, on certain routes and ships.

He tried to attribute the low number of ships capturing wind energy to the known conservatism of the maritime industry as well as products that have not yet reached their full maturity and are not yet fully part of engineered solution in shipbuilding. He also presented the trends in technology in the last 5 years, the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic challenges of such technology, the way modern tools can assess the operational performance and the upcoming projects on that theme.

He concluded his presentation in the hope that such developments will boost further the possibilities to save fuel and reduce emission by a smart use of the environment a ship is sailing in.

A Q&A session succeeded the presentation, while during the post-meeting reception attendees had the chance to meet with representatives from all segments of maritime industry, discuss and share their ideas.

The meeting was attended by twenty five (25) members including students and professionals.

For the fourth time the meeting was broadcast to members both in Europe and north America. Around 15 members attended it virtually.

The presentation can be found here.

From left to right: N. Dionissopoulos, G. Grigoropoulos, G. Gaillarde, J. Kokarakis, P. Lalangas