Asia/Pacific News
Singapore Patent for Today Makes Tomorrow's Bunker Saving Hybrid Ship Technology
Taiwanese shipping group Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) says it has registered a patent in Singapore for a fuel-savings system for bulk carriers, tankers, PCTC, and LNG ships as well as other vessels.
The "Hybrid Ship" technology uses a conventionally driven main propeller and an electrically driven duct propeller to achieve reduced fuel consumption, most notably when a ship is traveling with minimum ballast.
Nobu Su, chairman for TMT, says the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore granted the patent on August 28, 2015, while a patent was also previously granted by the Liberia Industrial Property Office in January 13, 2014 for a period of 20 years.
He says the patent has also been filed with 25 other shipping nations, and he noted that as more patent offices register Hybrid Ship, the technology will be more readily adopted.
He added that this in turn will "help tackle problems associated with the transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens through ballast water."
According to Su, because Hybrid Ship technology requires a vessel to have minimum ballast water, it therefore reduces problems associated with the transfer of organisms such as the Pacific saury of the subarctic and subtropical North Pacific that is harvested by Chinese, Japanese and Russian fishermen.
Su's firm, which underwent restructuring in 2013 following a bankruptcy filing, has also patented Oceannet, an offshore mobile communications network that relays the best navigation routes when vessels are travelling with reduced ballast, thereby maximising efficiency and also minimising harm to marine life.
Innovations in propeller design have been achieved by other companies, most notably South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries, which earlier this year unveiled the new Hi-FIN propeller device that reportedly can reduce bunker consumption by up to 2.5 percent compared with the same type of vessels without the attachment.
