Air Lubrication
In our article on how to manage biofouling, we highlighted the importance of regular maintenance and cleaning of the ship hull to ensure vessel efficiency. While maintaining the shape and condition of the hull is one strategy, the other would be to “air lubricate” the vessel. Hellenic Shipping News explained that this technology relies on bubbles of air to streamline the hull of the ship along the ocean. The continuous, thin layer of air acts as lubrication as the strip travels and helps to reduce drag on the hull and increases fuel efficiency.  

The technology is still in development as many older ships would require extensive retro-fitting to adopt such a technology. However, early adopter Samsung is already installing such a system on a vessel and is expecting to cut fuel consumption by 4% or 5%. 

Ocean Scrubbing
While years of R&D have been spent finding solutions to remove carbon dioxide effectively from the air, the ocean is the earth’s main ‘carbon sink’ and continues to soak up 30-40% of all the gas produced by human activities. Unfortunately, current methods of removing carbon emissions from water rely on expensive membranes. 

The good news is that a team of researchers at MIT may have recently found an efficient and inexpensive removal mechanism. They came up with a reversible process called ‘ocean scrubbing’ consisting of membrane-free electrochemical cells. Although the idea can only initially couple with systems that have existing or planned infrastructure that are already processing seawater (eg. desalination plant), MIT mechanical engineering Professor Kripa Varanas said: “This system is scalable so that we could integrate it potentially into existing processes that are already processing ocean water or in contact with ocean water.”  

Electronic Bill Lading 
Manual, paper-based processes are time-consuming, expensive and environmentally unsustainable for stakeholders along complex supply chains.  According to the Digital Container Ship Association, (DCSA) the bill of lading is one of the most important trade documents in container shipping. It functions as a document of title, receipt for shipped goods and a record of agreed terms and conditions. In fact, ocean carriers issue around 45 million bills of lading a year, to which only 1.2% were electronic (in 2021). DSCA also noted that moving away from the transfer of physical paper bills of lading “could save USD6.5 billion in direct costs for stakeholders, enabling USD30-40 billion in annual global trade growth.” 

They believe that digital processes enable data to flow instantly and securely, while altogether reducing delays and waste. To accelerate the adoption of digitalisation, nine ocean carriers have recently committed to converting 50% of original bills of lading to digital within five years and 100% by 2030 to accelerate the digitalisation of container trade. To be part of this movement, click here to read more.