Technology | Sailing Towards a Greener Future

WRITTEN BY MDPN. JOHN EUCLID PARREÑO

People who live in the 21st century indulge all the benefits from medical breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, and technological advancements of the both past and the present. For the busy maritime industry, crewless navigation is one step closer in becoming a reality.

Earlier this year, the chemical company Yara International announced that a fully autonomous container ship is set to sail between two towns in Norway before the year ends. Even though that it is not the first autonomous ship to ever sail– as an autonomous ferry made by Rolls-Royce and Finferries sailed in Finland last 2018 – it is actually the world’s first fully electric container ship.

Designed to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their harmful effect on the environment, Yara Birkeland’s zero-emission technology is a great catalyst in inspiring and challenging the rest of the maritime industry to lean towards a greener and environment-friendly enterprise. In fact, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), maritime transport is accountable for emitting a suffocating 940 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. They also added that if this figure maintains its pace over the next few decades, shipping emissions could potentially increase between 50% to 250% by 2050, thus warming the earth to unbearable proportions.

The environmental-friendly electric container ship was actually conceptualized last 2017 and was made possible through the partnership with technology firm, Kongsberg Maritime and shipbuilder Vard. According to Jon Sletten, plant manager for Yara’s factory in Porsgrunn, Norway, Yara Birkeland is large enough to carry 103 containers and can reach a top speed of about 13 knots. It will also use a 7 MWh battery, which is “about a thousand times the capacity of one electrical car”, that will be charged at the quayside before navigating to container harbors lining along the coast and then back again.

Aside from helping global conservation efforts with its zero-emission technology, being a crewless ship also means a more cost-effective ship as there is no one to pay and feed while the ship is underway. Instead of a crew to guide the ship while sailing like the conventional container ships, the electric ship’s movements will be closely controlled and monitored from three onshore data control centers.

Furthermore, still according to Sletten, all loading, discharging, mooring operations, berthing, and unberthing of the ship will operate using autonomous technology that also demands for the use of autonomous cranes and straddle carriers.

Actually, Yara Birkeland was initially scheduled to make its first voyage back in 2020. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic together with logistical obstacles eventually hindered it from sailing at the original date. Yet Sletten is optimistic that the ship will complete its first voyage from Herøya to Brevik before the year ends after transitioning from a hasty fast-track project to a detailed step-by-step approach.

According to Rudy Negenborn, a maritime and transport technology professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, fully autonomous ships like the Yara Birkeland are the future of the maritime industry. However, he furthers that a lot of obstacles are needed to overcome before fully autonomous ships can finally be utilized for the typical commercial sea journeys. He incites that unlike the usually quiet and calm ports the Yara Birkeland is set to sail into, navigating the heavy traffic in large ports could become a major challenge for these autonomous ships. “At some point, these ships will have to start interacting with each other so they can exchange information and create paths that are not conflicting,” he emphasizes.

Negenborn also said that without a crew of humans onboard to perform routine maintenance checks, autonomous vessels will have to need built-in self-diagnosing systems with the capability to detect and troubleshoot problems or communicate in case there is a need for human intervention.

Aside from these technical issues, he also said that legal implications when crossing the territorial waters of each country are also present. “The Yara Birkeland operates along the Norwegian coast, but if it went further, then it might encounter other territorial regions with perhaps different rules and regulations that need to be met. Who is liable if something goes wrong?” he added.

But despite these problems Yara Birkeland has to tackle, it is undeniable that she is indeed one of the signs that the maritime industry is slowly Innovating in terms of the ships’ mode of fuel. A transition from an environmental-threatening propulsive modality to a greener and definitely safer alternative shows that there is always room for advancement and improvement.

With this grand reveal, it can be expected that other shipping companies of the world will soon release their own versions of an autonomous ship, and the lot of us cannot wait to see what they have to offer. Japan, the world is looking at you.