Guiding the way to sustainable shipping
The GreenPilot project final seminar will be held in Gothenburg in May and SSPA is one of the a partners. By paving the way both technically and from a regulatory perspective GreenPilot has opened up new opportunities in clean coastal shipping and further profiled Sweden as a cutting edge player in green propulsion.
Our test facilities
Physical model testing will continue to be an important tool in the process of developing ships and assessing their performance. SSPA has the capability to perform most kinds of model testing in its facilities: the towing tank, the large cavitation tunnel, the seakeeping and manoeuvring basin and combine with computer tests.
Electrification, new pre-study
The needs and possibilities of electrification within shipping is analysed in a pre-study, conducted in a Swedish collaborative project. The aim is to give an overview of the technical development within electrification of sea transportation and analyse parameters that influence the performance and costs. The study also investigate the perspective of industry actors regarding their drivers for maritime electrification as well as existing challenges.
Developing innovative waterway solutions
SSPA are working with projects on the development of innovative logistics solutions and energy efficient vessel concepts for increased use of sea transportation in general and inland waterway transportation in particular. Within this area, SSPA has a large role in two large collaborative Interreg projects, NÖKS II and IWTS - Inland Waterway Transport Solutions.
fw – the unknown factor
Legislation on the EEDI requires the determination of a “weather factor” – fw – reflecting the percentage of its calm-water speed that a ship can maintain in Beaufort 6 and corresponding waves. The higher the fw value, the smaller the speed loss and the better the ship will perform in a seaway. But how do we determine this unknown fw factor, and how do we strike a balance between accuracy and costs? As a member of ITTC, SSPA is actively involved in developing guidelines.
Advanced maritime operations in civil engineering
The railway bridges in Stockholm city centre are to be replaced. Needless to say, this is a very sensitive operation and the STA wanted to acquire as much information about the problem as possible, as early as possible. One way of managing the impact of the operation on traffic was to transport and install the bridges over water. SSPA used its know-how of maritime operations and state-of-the-art simulation tool.
Demonstrating the use of urban and inland waterways
Demonstrating new logistics solutions is shown to be an important step for gaining understanding of system prerequisites for commercialisation, both with regard to technical issues such as vessel design characteristics and cargohandling equipment, and social matters such as the importance of practitioner involvement and the evaluation of performance criteria.
Investigating maritime accidents
SSPA assisted with an investigation of the tragic accident that occurred at the Port of Genoa, Italy in May 2013. A ship backed into a port control tower, causing it to collapse and killing nine people. By simulating the accident and running alternative scenarios, SSPA were able to give our clients thorough understanding of the events as well as important documentation to use in the legal process.
Battery hybrid applied to marine propulsion
The maritime industry is currently experiencing a significant increase of interest in battery hybrid installations for new buildings and retrofits. A number of recent projects show that SSPA has the tools and knowledge to answer these questions and to evaluate different alternatives for propulsion, from batteries and fuel tanks to propellers.
Virtual Captive Tests
The use of a new method of CFD calculations enables SSPA to offer early-stage manoeuvring predictions with much higher accuracy than before. By sorting out the manoeuvring issues before too much time has been spent optimising the hull lines, the newbuild project will save time and money in the design stage. SSPA’s experts also believe that this approach will lead to safer, better and more sustainable ship design. Virtual Captive Tests (VCT) is one of SSPA’s “manoeuvring tools”.
“To do right from the beginning”
SSPA has positive experiences from supporting clients in wise decision-making using LCC (Life Cycle Cost) analyses as a tool. The LCC analysis is used to facilitate the understanding of the economic part of the project by building different scenarios in a structured way. The goal is increased confidence in decision-making.
Methanol as an alternative fuel for smaller vessels
Interest in methanol as an alternative fuel for meeting emissions requirements continues to grow. Methanol is a good alternative for smaller ships operating on coastal and inland waterways, but has yet to be tested in these applications. SSPA is coordinator of the project, “SUMMETH", which is focused on developing methanol solutions for smaller vessels.