How aviation technology could revolutionize maritime transport for a greener future

With shipowners having until 2020 to comply with lower fuel emissions regulations, the intelligent rigid wingsail system invented by a Spanish start-up called bound4blue could be an answer that also saves them millions in fuel costs. The company’s chief executive, José Miguel Bermúdez, speaks to Mark Edwards.

When Jules Verne had his visionary engineer Pencroft say in his 1874 novel ‘The Mysterious Island’ that “water will be the coal of the future” it was the stuff of science fiction. But, like many other elements in the French writer’s works – flight, space travel and underwater voyages – it looks set to become reality.

A young, innovative team of aeronautical engineers from Spain, under the company name bound4blue, is bringing aviation technology to the shipping industry. Its patented system of intelligent rigid wingsails, similar to airplane wings, harnesses wind power to help propel the vessel, reducing the use and expense of hydrocarbon fuels and their harmful emissions. The ultimate goal – one the company is currently working on – is to design a vessel powered solely by the wingsail technology, producing hydrogen and oxygen in turbines under the deck by means of the electrolysis of seawater in a Verne-pleasing clean and cost-efficient way.

A GREENER FUTURE

It was in 2015 that bound4blue chief executive José Miguel Bermúdez founded the company along with fellow aeronautical engineers David Ferrer and Cristina Aleixendri Muñoz. The trio met at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and started to work on the project in their spare time.

“The company was set up as we could not envision a future in which the dependence on fossil fuels and the emission of pollutant emissions was an issue,” says 32-year-old Mr Bermúdez. “To us, that was not a ‘real future’.”

Despite their aeronautical background, they saw that the shipping industry – crying out for green initiatives in the wake of International Maritime Organization rules that will mandate cleaner-burning fuels at sea by 2020 – would provide a sustainable, profitable business with a huge eco-friendly impact.

“The maritime industry transports 90 per cent of worldwide cargo, but it is also highly pollutant, accounting for three per cent of carbon dioxide, 15 per cent of nitrogen oxide and 13 per cent of sulfur oxide global emissions,” says Mr Bermúdez. “In fact, 16 of the world’s largest vessels emit as much sulfur as all the world’s motor vehicles. This is due to the low-quality heat fuel oil being used. According to a University of Delaware research study, ship-related sulfur emissions lead to 60,000 deaths a year and cost up to US$ 330 billion a year. If we can integrate the wingsail system in just one per cent of the fleet, plenty of lives and US$ 3.3 billion of health costs could be saved every year.”

With the industry looking to clean up its act, bound4blue offers a solution and sweetens the deal for shipowners – used to spending up to 80 per cent of their operating costs on bunkering – with fuel efficiency savings.

FUEL SAVINGS

“The industry requires eco-friendly, fuel-efficiency technologies to face these newly enforced environmental regulations,” says Mr Bermúdez. “And here is where we are positioning bound4blue as a company. The wingsail system, integrated into the vessels, generates effective thrust from wind power, which reduces the engine power required. The result is fuel savings ranging from 10 to 35 per cent with an associated emissions reduction. For shipowners, the sails pay for themselves over five years because of the fuel savings made in that time.”

Anyone who follows the Americas Cup will know that rigid wingsails have brought proven aerodynamic advantages to racing yachts, but the shipping industry has shown little interest in adopting the technology. Its reluctance seems to centre on concerns about the expense of replacing their fleet with ships that can support the sails and the obstacles to port loading and unloading the sails will present.

INTELLIGENT SAILS

Both these concerns seem to have been solved by bound4blue. The customized wingsails can retract into the ship’s hull in bad weather or during port operations. The intelligent sails can also be orientated to catch the optimum thrust for all wind directions. These adjustments are all automated, so no extra crew is required. While integrating the wingsails into a newbuilding is the most straightforward installation, bound4blue’s system can be retrofitted to the majority of the world’s current shipping fleet.

Unsurprising, then, that bound4blue has made waves since its launch. It won the Emprendedor XXI, Spain’s premier award for start-ups and Mr Bermúdez had the honour of being presented with the Fundación Princesa de Girona business award by King Felipe VI of Spain this year.

There has also been a very positive response from the maritime industry. The team at bound4blue is currently working on the integration of a 20 meter wingsail unit in a long-liner owned by Spanish fishing company Orpagu to be completed early next year; and a 25 meter wingsail unit is to be installed in a Spanish-owned general cargo vessel.

Also in line for the wingsails is a bulk shipping company, which has a string of other active leads for other pilot integrations. It seems only a matter of time before large vessels fitted with these aerodynamic wingsails are seen in Caribbean waters.

The majority of seagoing vessels can take advantage of bound4blue’s invention. Mr Bermúdez says the wingsail system is designed to be integrated in both newbuildings and existing vessels and has the potential to revolutionize the industry.

“The current worldwide fleet is of more than 90,000 vessels,” he says. “More than 60 per cent of these are suitable for the installation of our technology, including fishing vessels, bulkers, tankers, ferries and ro-ro vessels. Taking a medium-sized 150 meter length chemical tanker, the fuel savings achieved can reach more than 30 per cent. This represents about 1,200 tonnes of fuel per year, with an associated cost of more than €700,000 a year.

A HUGE IMPACT

“The associated emissions savings over the total lifetime of the vessel, around 25 years, are equivalent to the emissions of almost 32,650 diesel cars. If the system was installed only on one per cent of the global existing fleet, the emission savings would be equivalent to 30 million diesel cars.” The figures are persuasive. bound4blue’s rigid wingsail technology has the potential to have a huge impact on our environmental and physical health. With work ongoing to use the wingsails to produce clean energy to power the ship, the company is getting closer to what Mr Bermúdez calls “our vision for the future”. Jules Verne would be proud.

SAILING AHEAD
Features of bound4blue’s wingsail system

• Foldable system to ensure safety in harsh weather and during port operations
• Able to rotate to adapt to any wind direction
• 100 per cent automated operation
• Modular design to simplify the scaling up and down of the wingsail for different sizes of vessels
• System can be installed on both newbuildings and existing vessels.
• Payback periods of less than five years.

To see a video explaining how the bound4blue rigid sail technology works, visit: www.bound4blue.com