South Korea’s largest shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has acquired design approval for Hi-Rotor, its own wind-assisted propulsion tech.
HHI claims its rotor sail tech can contribute to reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions by about 6 to 8%.
Many new forms of wind propulsion are coming to market of late. Splash reported last week on Chinese shipbuilder, Jiangnan Shipyard’s junk-inspired sail.
Separately, top brass at HHI have outlined how they see the future fuel race panning out.
Interviewed by the Financial Times, Ka Sam-hyun, CEO of parent Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, said he saw LNG being an interim fuel for the coming couple of decades with plenty more methanol-fuelled ship orders also coming into the mix, before an eventual transition to hydrogen.
“You cannot replace all fleets with only clean fuel by 2040. LNG is a transitional option but it will last for another generation, given the limited supply of methanol,” Ka said, adding: “Ammonia is toxic and still too expensive. Eventually, we should move towards hydrogen ships and electric-motor ships, but it is still too far off.”
HHI is busy building a series of landmark methanol-fuelled boxships for Maersk at present.
