| 2 | 2010 - Schiff & Hafen

SHIPBUILDING & EQUIPMENT | INDUSTRY NEWS
New data protocol
declared ready
SHIP DATA EXCHANGE | The
4 th Shipdex Conference took
place in Augsburg, Germany,
on 16 th of February, where the
Shipdex protocol was declared
ready and available for use.
Shipdex (Ship Data Exchange)
is international business
rules (protocol) based
and fully compliant with
S1000D, developed to standardise
the exchange of electronic
technical data within
the shipping community. It is
an independent standard and
is open to all members of the
maritime industry.
The Shipdex protocol aims to
ensure a high quality of technical
and logistical data and simplify
the exchange of data within
the industry. For application
service providers, Shipdex is a
basic specifi cation for implementing
data interfaces from
technical manual solutions to
maintenance and purchase or
any fully fl edged ERP systems.
The purpose of the conference
was to bring together the different
sub-groups of the European
maritime industry and
show the milestones reached
during the development of a
solution to the long-standing
industry challenge regarding
paper manuals, namely the
on-board availability of correct
maintenance data.
More than 100 people attented
the Shipdex Conference,
including owners,
classifi cation societies, shipyards,
equipment makers and
software providers of maintenance
systems. Speakers
included Shipdex founding
members Grimaldi Group,
Intership Navigation, Mac-
Gregor (as part of the Cargotec
Group), Alfa Laval, SpecTec
and MAN Diesel, as well as
Rolls Royce Marine, Germanischer
Lloyd, United Arab
Shipping Company, Corena
and the S1000D Council.
Shipdex Conference at the MAN Diesel PrimeServ Academy
Promising, concrete signs of
the new protocol’s acceptance
were also revealed in a series
of announcements that:
� MAN Diesel is ready to
deliver manuals in Shipdex
format
�
MacGregor Cranes will
shortly be ready to deliver
manuals in Shipdex format,
MacGregor RoRo and Mac-
Gregor Hatch Cover will follow
�
SpecTec is offering their
Shipdex-compliant CMMS,
the AMOS Business Suite
� Shipowners will order
Shipdex data for their new
building projects
� United Arab Shipping
Company has announced
that it has requested Shipdex
datasets for nine coming
newbuildings
� Germanischer Lloyd is
exploring the possibilities of
using Shipdex in its customer
communication and approval
processes
� Rolls-Royce Marine has
become a registered member
of the Shipdex community.
Environmentally sound gas-fuelled ships
COOPERATION | A cooperation
agreement to develop
gas-fuelled merchant vessels
with effi cient and competitive
propulsion machinery concepts
that meet or exceed the
demands of future environmental
regulations has been
signed by Wärtsilä and Samsung
Heavy Industries (SHI).
The focus of the Wärtsilä/SHI
joint study will be on utilizing
liquefi ed natural gas (LNG) as
fuel for operating vessels. This
is especially relevant in Emission
Control Areas (ECAs).
Wärtsilä’s input will be related
to the propulsion machinery,
with particular reference to
large bore, dual-fuel engines
combined with mechanical
propulsion solutions. SHI will
concentrate on the design of
highly effi cient vessels incorporating
fuel storage facilities
34 Ship & Offshore | 2010 | N o 2
and gas-powered propulsion
machinery. Merchant vessels
to be evaluated include crude
oil tankers, for which both optimum
propulsion concepts
and the performance benefi ts
achieved using LNG as fuel,
will be assessed. According
to Jaakko Eskola, Group Vice
President of Wärtsilä Ship
Power, the dual-fuel engine
technology offers 20-25%
lower CO 2 emissions, 90%
lower NOx emissions and almost
negligible SOx and particulate
emissions compared
to conventional engines running
on heavy fuel oil (HFO).
In gas mode, all Wärtsilä’s dual-fuel
engines already comply
with the IMO’s Tier III
regulations which come into
force in 2016, Eskola adds.
Engines running on HFO have
been the market standard for
propulsion and electric power
generation in merchant vessels
for many decades. While
HFO represents the cheapest
available source of primary
energy, future environmental
regulations will require technologies
with lower levels
of emissions. ECAs, wherein
emissions of NOx, SOx and
particulates by marine engines
will be regulated, have
been announced under IMO
Tier III, and the number of
ECAs in different regions of
the world is expected to rise.
Increasingly tough environmental
regulations will open
up opportunities for new solutions
incorporating costeffi
cient technology, and this
could trigger a substantial
shift towards gas-powered dual-fuel
vessels. The need to invest
in emissions-abatement
technology will make the use
of liquid fuels increasingly
expensive in the future. From
a price perspective, LNG is already
competitive with liquid
fuels, but further investment
in the supply chain is necessary
to encourage widespread
use in the shipping industry.
SHI will be developing a
highly effi cient and environmentally
friendly gas-fuelled
ship with a new hull form
and propulsion systems. It
will include a fuel gas storage
and supply system, known as
Samsung FuGaS. As well as
identifying the major vessel
parameters, SHI will provide
input for the specifi cations
regarding the propulsion
system and fuel storage and
handling systems, in addition
to assisting with economic
evaluations.