Univ. of Michigan ‘ballast-free ship’ could cut costs while blocking aquatic invaders
April 08, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Source: University of Michigan News Service
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—University of Michigan researchers are investigating a radical new design for cargo ships that would eliminate ballast tanks, the water-filled compartments that enable non-native creatures to sneak into the Great Lakes from overseas.
The U-M ballast-free ship concept offers a promising alternative that could block hitchhiking organisms while eliminating the need for expensive sterilization equipment, said Michael Parsons, professor of naval architecture and marine engineering and co-leader of the project.
“There is no silver bullet. But the ballast-free ship has the potential to be an economic winner while addressing the ballast problem in a serious way,” Parsons said.
The U-M ballast-free ship concept was conceived in 2001 and patented in 2004. It is intended for new-vessel construction only.
With funding from the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute, Parsons and his colleagues recently built a 16-foot, $25,000 wooden scale model of an oceangoing bulk carrier to test the concept.
In addition to helping fine tune the design, results from the latest round of tank tests and computer simulations suggest the ballast-free ship will deliver an unforeseen benefit. The design appears to provide a significant savings—possibly as much as 7.3 percent—in the power needed to propel the ship.
For a 650-foot bulk carrier hauling 32,000 metric tons of cargo from the Great Lakes to Europe and back, that translates into a roundtrip fuel savings of roughly $150,000. A report on the latest test results, including their economic implications, will be published next month in the Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
Building an oceangoing bulk carrier can cost $70 million. The added construction costs of the ballast-free design—for extra hull steel, trunk-isolation valves, piping and welding—would be more than offset by eliminating the filtration system and the ballast tanks.
Full article, photos and video at the University of Michigan News Service >>
