Cargo Business Newswire

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Friday, November 4, 2011

Solar-wind-powered hybrid supertanker design released

Sauter Carbon Offset Design has released a prototype design for what is being termed “the largest and greenest post-Panamax vessel”.

The 1,395-foot-long DynaWing solar hybrid supertanker with 2 million barrel capacity is supposed to reduce fuel consumption and greenouse emissions by up to 75 percent, the design firm said in a statement.

The “Emax Supertanker” design draws half of its power from liquid natural gas with the other half generated by solar and wind power, Sauter Design said.

The vessel protoype is longer, narrower with less draft than a more typical 2-million-barrel VLCC, creating hull drag, which in conjunction with twin CRP Hybrid Propulsion Pods reduces fuel consumption and GHG emissions by 35 percent, Sauter said.

An additional 20 to 30 percent reduction is achieved via the 500,000 square-meter DynaWing boom furling sails, and another 15 to 20 percent is reduced utilizing a Solbian solar power-generating array.

Mitsubishi’s Bubble Hull and Wartsila’s Coded LNG Hybrid power system are part of the vessel design, Sauter said.

The cost to build such a vessel is approximately 15 percent higher that of a conventional 330,000DWT supertanker, the designer said.