VIEWPOINT

NICK EDSTROM | Editor nedstrom@motorship.com

Tomorrow’s World

For British readers of a certain generation, few things bring the early 1980s back into focus quite as readily as Tomorrow’s World.

One of the staples of the former show were forward looking articles predicting great technological advances in the unimaginably distant world of 2020.

This month’s issue features a mixture of different product developments that might have been covered approvingly in 1983. The world’s first development project to install a hydrogen fuel cell unit capable of operating on toluene-based hydrogen fuels is one particularly project.

Unsurprisingly, the project is being developed in Norway, where a supportive maritime ecosystem is continuing to promote cutting edge concepts. At a time when government intervention is particularly in fashion – we include a feature on President Biden’s multibillion dollar greentech projects in our Regional Focus section – it is worth noting that sustained bipartisan government interest is a necessary condition of successful projects.

Håvard Tvedte of Norwegian technology incubator Maritime Cleantech discussed the specifics of Norway’s environment in an interview with The Motorship. While government finance and mutual trust within the Norwegian community are helpful, there is no substitute for the hard work needed to sustain the conditions to bring together research institutions, OEMs, ship owners and interested parties from the political and financial communities.

One topic with a Norwegian flavour that definitely was on Tomorrow’s World running order in 1983 was innovation in propulsion technology. I mention this because Paul Gunton has the pleasure of revisiting a theme that he first covered for The Motorship in 1982, in which he first brought the concept of flapping foil propulsors to the world’s attention. He produces a retrospective in this month’s issue of The Motorship

Innovation in propulsors remains a hot topic, Wendy Laursen provides updates on a counter rotating foil propulsor concept developed by VTT, as well as the latest developments in the SeaTech project examining flapping foil developments and associated engine control developments.

Finally, we provide updates on a number of new technologies that have developed a little faster than flapping foils. Foremost among these, we have an exclusive update on the development of MAN Energy Solutions’ new AEngine development project from Thomas Hansen of MAN Energy Solutions. The new engine has been installed and is awaiting the first bunkering of ammonia, with the intention of starting up the engine on ammonia in the first half of 2023.

MAN ES engineers remain active on a number of different fronts. Before the reference of MAN Energy Solutions’ new low-pressure, low-speed ME-GA engine even enters service, MAN ES is rolling out an upgrade solution that will optimise the performance of the engine.

Next month we will return (reluctantly) to the world of regulatory developments. High level decisions that are under consideration in Brussels and at the IMO are likely to have wide ranging effects on the introduction of carbon capture technology, and also on the emergence of connected hydrogen-based supply chains.