Expert Q&A: low carbon marine technologies

What green shipping technologies is your organisation is working on?

JJGA: Ulstein is approaching the decarbonisation of the industry in the same way that we have approached our ship design activities until now, holistically and systematically. Ulstein’s vision is to create tomorrow’s solutions for sustainable marine operations. This has required us to understand the needs of the operations – what is the vessel going to do and finding a smart way to support those needs in a sustainable way.

Zero carbon shipping is a complex choice of alternative fuels. There is not one unique solution to decarbonise shipping. Each vessel type, region of operation and type of operation will lead to the selection of a preferred solution. In any case, we at Ulstein believe that more sustainable shipping operations will require the combination of four strategies: i) reduce energy consumption - by smarter hull designs – like Ulstein X-Bow,  X-Stern and Twin X-Stern, ii) use of greener energy sources – like methanol, hydrogen, ammonia or nuclear power, iii) smarter use of energy onboard – enabled by the use of hybrid power plants and battery energy storage systems, and iv) more efficient vessel operations – enabled by digitalisation and smarter use of data from operations. Ulstein is actively working with all four strategies and implementing them both in new-builds and vessels in operation.