SNAME Western Europe Symposium

Presented by the SNAME Western Europe Section.

If you are not attending the event in-person, please select virtual attendee. You will not be sent a link to access the symposium without this registration.

Presentation 1
Smart Ship Technologies For Automated Ship Inspections

Structural and machinery failures in the day-to-day ship operations may lead to major accidents, endangering crew and passengers onboard, threatening the environment, damaging the ship itself, and having a great impact in terms of business losses. In this respect, this presentation demonstrates a suite of smart technologies for automated ship inspection and maintenance as part of the INCASS (Inspection Capabilities for Enhanced Ship Safety) research project. The suite of software and hardware tools suggests the use of innovative solutions in the ship inspection regime through the introduction of robotic and other automated platforms for on-line or on-demand ship inspection activities for ship structures and machinery, facilitating the overall ship inspection regime. Actual ship case studies demonstrate the applicability of the mentioned smart technologies tools and overall inspection framework.

SPEAKER


Dr. Iraklis Lazakis (CEng, MBA, FRINA, FHEA MSNAME)
Dr. Iraklis Lazakis is Reader of Maritime Operations and Maintenance at the University of Strathclyde, Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering. He joined the Dpt of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering (NAOME) of the University of Strathclyde in 2007 as a Ph.D. researcher. 

Presentation 2
Gas Shipping in the 21st Century 

“Liquified Gas Shipping is undergoing huge growth and focus as the world rapidly decarbonises.

This presentation will focus on the history, present status and prospects and developments for the future including the carriage of non-hydrocarbon liquified gases such as hydrogen and CO2.”

SPEAKER

Andrew Clifton is the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer of SIGTTO (The Society of International Gas Tanker & Terminal Operators Ltd), he has over 35 years experience in the liquefied gas shipping industry. This includes 19 years at sea, three years as master, mainly on liquefied gas carriers, a first class honours degree in shipping operations and shore managerial experience over the last 20 years. The latter includes three years working at the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), marine superintendent with Golar LNG, almost two years in the SIGTTO Secretariat as a Technical Adviser and over five years in Indonesia with BP as LNG Shipping manager for the Tangguh LNG project.

 Andrew was also the SIGTTO Panel chairman from October 2008 until becoming GM.

 Andrew Clifton is the eighth SIGTTO General Manager. He is also the youngest General Manager and the first General Manager who was formerly a Technical Adviser at the Society. He is technical co-chair of the Gastech conference.

Presentation 3
Sustainability - CO2 Ships

The world is transitioning to a low-carbon future. Development of the next generation CO2 carrier designs will speed the adoption of Carbon capture and storage technology and facilitate net negative emissions strategies.

 This technology has the potential to make a significant contribution to global emissions reduction strategies, safe and efficient transport of liquefied carbon.  This discussion will consider the availability and direction of CO2 carrier development to support midstream aspects of this sustainability target and to understand the implications on existing gas carrier technology.

 
SPEAKER

Sean Bond graduated from University of Michigan USA in 1988. He has worked for ABS for 32 years 9 months. Presently holding the position of Director, Global Gas Development at ABS London.

 

Presentation 4

Liquified Gas Production, Reception and Distribution – Near and Offshore Floating Assets

As part of the current energy transition, there is a continuing growth in the application of gas for electrical power generation, industrial and domestic consumption.  Hence, gas is increasingly being transhipped in its cooled transitory forms of various Liquefied Petroleum Gases (LPGs), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), and in the very near future also Liquified Hydrogen (LH₂).  Because of this growth there is a significant and rising demand for liquified gas assets of various frame sizes at either end of the seaborne supply chain, and floating assets are particularly cost-effective in providing solutions that are low-risk, flexible and inherently able to readily adapt to changing market conditions.

 At the supply end assets consist of specialised new-build and converted Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) assets for the processing and liquefaction of the gases, and other associated hydrocarbons, namely Floating Liquefied Petroleum or Natural Gas (FLPG or FLNG etc.) vessels.  The reception / utilisation end of the chain also consists of specialised assets, such as: Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessels for reception and distribution; Floating Storage and Regasification Units (FSRUs); Floating Power Barges (FPBs) or ships; LNG Bunker Vessels (LBVs) etc.

 Drawing on over two decades of experience in the design of floating liquified gas facilities and of innovative liquified gas ships, the presentation will consider the development of robust and safe floating liquified gas assets both near and offshore.

 SPEAKER

Keith is a Senior Consultant in Whole Ship Design and Naval Architecture with Safinah Group, where he undertakes commercial and offshore marine consultancy for a range of clients globally.  Having worked in both shipbuilding and ship repair yards on the River Tyne, he joined Swan Hunter Shipbuilders in 1990 as a Naval Architect and then upon their formation in 1995 Armstrong Technology, which was acquired by Babcock in 2000, becoming a Senior then the Principal Naval Architect and finally overall Engineering Manager for the Tyneside Ship Design office until its closure in 2018.  He was also both Chief Engineer for Commercial Marine and Subject Matter Expert for the Naval Architecture domain across Babcock.

Over a thirty plus year career as a ship designer and naval architect, Keith has been constantly at the forefront of the technical development of robust but flexible solutions for a multitude of design problems.  He has constantly strived with clients globally to explore unknown and often conflicting multi-dimensional design spaces for novel, complex and bespoke merchant and offshore ship types, both new-build and conversions.  Keith has published almost sixty technical papers and, as a highly experienced designer, has been invited to give numerous public presentations and lectures on ship and nearshore / offshore vessel design and performance.  He sits on a variety of professional technical committees and is active in several professional learned institutions.

Presentation 5
Autonomous Shipping and the Impact of Age Among Merchant Seafarers

With autonomous shipping operations becoming a reality, it is crucial that the maritime industry and seafarers can adjust alongside the technological strides. As the full scope of autonomous shipping is yet to be fully understood the industry currently stands on the brink of a transition, the likes of which have not been witnessed since the change from sails to engines. Despite this, the International Maritime Organisation has begun to implement a framework to allow navigational systems more control, thus revealing that the maritime industry is well prepared elevate the control of vessels to a higher autonomous level of control. However, fitting vessels with autonomous systems is not as simple installing the system and letting the vessel go, the complexities lie with the navigation of the vessel. Overhauling and retrofitting vessels with autonomous systems will demand that the vessel can operate and execute decisions that are currently given by human input. Therefore, when giving the vessel full autonomous control it is imperative that it remains under supervision, and that the human operator has the situational awareness and understanding to recognise, react and correct any potentially hazardous situation which may be unfolding. The entry age for an individual to become a seafarer is currently 16, with no upper limit. Additionally, statistics from the age demographic among merchant seafarers show that there will be a large volume of retirements which will occur within the next two decades. The repercussion of the increasing number of retirees will deliver the current cohort of cadets and junior officers becoming the next generation of senior officers and ships masters who will need to be trained and skilled to cope with both autonomous and manual shipping navigation. The paper describes an analysis of 50 individuals, differing in age, with a variety of experience as part of the navigational crew of merchant vessels, how they conducted themselves during a bridge watchkeeping simulator exercise and their views on the introduction of autonomous operation. The results of the study showed that the level of trust that the candidate placed in autonomy differed with age.

 SPEAKER

Jevon is a 3rd year PhD candidate from Newcastle University. His research topic for his PhD is the maritime human automation relationship, focussing on the situational awareness aspect for navigational officers in particular. Since starting his PhD Jevon has had one paper published to the International Naval Engineering Conference 2020, additionally he has submitted a further two manuscripts with the aims to be published in the next year. Prior to beginning his PhD Jevon had completed his undergraduate degree at Newcastle University. Jevon’s knowledge from the maritime industry began with him undertaking an engineering cadetship with Clyde Marine Training in 2013 where he accrued sea time onboard a variety of vessels, leading him to where he is today.

Presentation 6
A Real-time Semi-Supervised Anomaly: Detection Framework for Fault Diagnosis of Marine Machinery Systems

Maritime companies are currently working to ensure a digital revolution within the maritime industry. Smart maintenance is pivotal in leading this transition, the aim of which is to employ internet of ships to perform real-time data collection through the utilization of smart sensors, reliable communications, and seamless integration in order to apply predictive maintenance with the application of artificial intelligence and provision of relevant information. Therefore, regular diagnosis and prognosis can be performed to assess the current and future health of machinery to assist in decision-making processes. To enhance the current practices in this area, an innovative anomaly detection framework implementing LSTM-based VAE is proposed to address the challenges identified within this sector. A case study of a diesel generator of a tanker ship is introduced to assess the proposed methodology. Results demonstrated the capability of identifying anomalous instances under various simulated scenarios, thus achieving the maximum precision and recall when the context considers significant anomaly dimensions.

SPEAKER

Mr. Christian Velasco-Gallego BEng, MSc, SMSNAME, is a researcher at the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. He has 3 years of experience as a technical consultant and supply chain specialist providing assistance in customer’s decision-making processes by the implementation of supply chain intelligence solutions, analysis of historical data, and development of customized solutions. He has also experience in research activities related to the development and analysis of real-time intelligent systems, which facilitated the publication of peer-reviewed papers and attendance at international conferences. His research interests include smart maintenance, real-time intelligent systems, digital twins, and a digital supply chain.