New Lab to Focus on Renewable Energy, Bunker Saving Technologies

The Aquarius Innovation Lab is located in Osaka, Japan.

KEI System Ltd (KEI) and Eco Marine Power (EMP) today said they have jointly established a new lab that will focus on the development of marine renewable energy systems and fuel saving technologies.

Located in Osaka, Japan, the Aquarius Innovation Lab includes an indoor test centre plus an outdoor area for evaluating the performance of hardware such as solar panels, rigid sails, and wind power devices.

EMP said the lab is a multi-vendor environment, and will develop solutions suited to ships ranging from small passenger ferries and tugboats, to naval vessels, bulk ore carriers, and cruise ships.

Ongoing projects include the development of EMP's wind and solar power technologies, the Aquarius MRE System and EnergySail, both of which are to be tested in the facility.

"The Aquarius Innovation Lab will allow us to develop with EMP a range of innovative technologies that will reduce fuel consumption on ships and also lower the noxious gas emissions from these vessels," said Tsukasa Nakagawa, President of KEI System.

The new lab will be evaluating and testing equipment from Italy, UK, Canada, Germany, USA, and Japan, which will also be used to prepare new features for the Aquarius Management & Automation System (Aquarius MAS) recently released by EMP.

In the future, the lab will support feature upgrades for other EMP & KEI products.

Greg Atkinson of EMP commented that "The establishment of the Aquarius Innovation Lab is another major step forward for Eco Marine Power and strengthens our relationship with KEI System. We look forward to working with KEI in bringing a range of innovative renewable energy and fuel saving solutions to the shipping market."

Starting from mid-December a complete prototype of the Aquarius MRE System including an EnergySail & computer system will start the final phase of testing in the lab before sea trials, which are scheduled to commence during 2014.