An interesting little piece of tech news leaves big questions, answers are found.
By Ryan Skinner (email)
Few who read any maritime news will miss a recent piece of news from Drydocks WorldDubai: "Drydocks World-Dubai installs Advanced Grounding Avoidance System on BP Shipping vessel". Search the headline and you'll find 200 re-hashings of the same press release.
The story in <50 words: BP Shipping has developed an echo-sounder based system that can scan the water column one kilometer in front of a vessel, in order to catch shallows sooner and avoid groundings. A trial system is being installed now on a BP Shipping tanker at Drydocks World-Dubai.
The press release, issued by Drydocks World (probably via a Dubai-based PR agency), stresses the expertise of the yard in installing the system. For the fleet manager who is planning a dry-docking in order to install a unique piece of kit, the intended response is: "Wow. Perfect."
Everyone else is left with a few burning questions: Why would BP Shipping install such a thing? How does it work? Will it actually prevent groundings? None of the media outlets that purveyed Drydocks World's news sought to answer these questions. A little rooting around BP Shipping's web-site, however, turned up this March 2009 article (see pages 8-9) in their house magazine, which goes a long way to answering the questions.
No blame to Drydocks World here; they do their best to publicize a piece of news that can earn them business. The media that carried the news could spend ten minutes to dig up a more interesting story, but - with the swooning ad sales and down-sizings shaking the church of journalism - one shouldn't be surprised.
Only slightly related: Another press release, this one from ShipServ, struck me as compelling, if perhaps a little unsophisticated and self-promoting in a way that will quickly get chopped down in media where real editors really edit the releases.
Will a Swedish ferry operator be the first to power a commercial ship using biofuel?
By Ryan Skinner (email)
Swedish ferry operator Gotland Rederi has announced plans to power a new series of ferries with natural gas, and then biogas by 2020. Ferry propulsion using natural gas was first tried by the Norwegians (successfully) with Glutra starting in 2000. Subsequent natural gas-driven ferries are on order.
Biogas, according to one of the leading producers in Sweden, costs at least three to four times as much as natural gas per cubic meter. It is being used in Sweden currently to drive some cars, as it is a renewable source of energy and leads to reduced production of carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse emissions.
Gotland Rederi hopes that its commitment to running on biogas contributes to increased biogas production on its home island of Gotland.
An article from Norway's Shortsea Shipping Promotion Centre provides enlightening reading about the use of biofuels (and challenges thereof) in ships.
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