Chapter 214 Potential Exploration
After listening to Huang Weida’s introduction.
Several engineers finally figured out the specific plan.
In fact, ship technology since the 21st century has made great progress compared to the previous century, at least in terms of energy conservation and emission reduction.
Mainly because energy conservation and emission reduction can reduce transportation costs, shipping companies naturally prefer energy-efficient transport ships, which also encourages shipping companies to invest heavily in technological improvements.
"I have discussed some of the current cutting-edge technologies with several colleagues, and there are four technologies that are more suitable, namely..."
Huang Weida took out his tablet computer and retrieved some information on the four technical solutions.
The four options are: low-speed large propellers, ultra-light hulls, high-efficiency combined gas turbine units, and exhaust gas and waste heat recovery systems.
"The ultra-light hull is now being used on this ship." Huang Weida pointed to the module shell on one side.
Everyone is very clear about this technology.
Usually, a 6500TEU container ship has a net load of 80,000 tons, an empty ship displacement of 24,000 tons, and a full load displacement of 120,000 to 130,000 tons.
The empty ship displacement refers to the hull, equipment, lubricants and fresh water, of which the hull weighs approximately 19,000 tons.
After switching to silicon-aluminum steel, the weight of a hull of the same specifications will be compressed to about 12,000 tons, reducing the weight of the hull by 7,000 tons.
The reason for this change.
This is mainly because the material density is different. The density coefficient of ordinary ship steel is about 7.5, while the density coefficient of silicon aluminum steel is only about 4.8.
This reduction in the dead weight of the hull can be converted into container load capacity, increasing the load capacity of 6,500 standard containers to the upper limit of 87,000 tons.
This is equivalent to saving nearly 9% of transportation costs in disguise.
Huang Weida continued, “Large low-speed propellers are also a common method for energy-saving transformation of old ships. However, there are technical barriers to the production of large propellers.”
When he heard about the technical requirements of large propellers, Ino immediately laughed: "We don't need to worry about this."
"Ha ha……"
"really."
Others didn't worry about this either.
It may be technically difficult for spare parts suppliers of other shipbuilding companies to produce qualified large propellers.
However, the parts supplier of New Luzon Shipyard is Sea Snail New Materials. Not to mention large propellers, even super-large ones can be produced, and their performance and service life are excellent.
"According to my simulation results on the supercomputer, the use of a large, reverse low-speed propeller arrangement can reduce energy consumption by about 8%."
Ino touched his chin and suddenly thought of a technology that has become popular in recent years: "Aren't Daewoo Shipbuilding and Deutsche Bank experimenting with a technology called rotor sails? It seems that it can also save about ."
"This technology does exist, but rotor sails are not suitable for container ships and have a relatively narrow scope of application." Huang Weida spread his hands helplessly.
Everyone understood it immediately.
Container ships need to load containers and do not have enough deck space to install rotor sails, which take up more space.
Ore carriers, cement transport ships, grain transport ships, passenger ships, oil tankers and the like can be equipped with rotor sails.
This technology is not difficult for the current New Luzon Shipyard, and it can even be done better. After all, with the support of various new materials, it is difficult to do poorly.
"As for the gas turbine and exhaust gas heat recovery system, this is actually a complete system. According to the current technology, it can probably reduce energy consumption by about 10%."
Ino nodded: "I have read the internal paper on this system, and it seems that the car company has already applied it."
"That's right. We borrowed this set of technology from Aoba Automobile Company, and also incorporated our own improvement plans." Huang Weida explained with a smile.
"Is it a combined unit solution?" Ino obviously saw the key point.
Huang Weida smiled even brighter: "Inno engineers have sharp eyes."
His plan was not complicated. He took advantage of the relatively small size of gas turbines and the fact that no imported equipment was required to convert the previous heavy-duty gas turbines into four sets of smaller gas turbines.
The purpose of doing this is to avoid the pain points of low speed and low efficiency of gas turbines.
The economic speed of cargo ships is around 11 to 13 knots. Although many cargo ships can reach a maximum speed of more than 20 knots, in reality no shipping company will choose a high speed.
Because high speed means energy consumption will be several times higher, doing so is not worth the cost.
Four medium-sized gas turbines are used instead, two of which operate at full capacity on a daily basis and two as backup.
When you need to slow down, you can turn off one of them and slowly reduce the power of the other one.
When equipment fails or acceleration occurs, the backup gas turbine can be started.
In addition, the ship can also be equipped with a flywheel energy storage device to quickly start the gas turbine or for emergency braking.
There is no need to introduce too much about the exhaust gas and waste heat recovery system, after all, Aoba Automobile has already applied it in this area.
As for the exhaust gas and waste heat recovery system, Huang Weida is just a ship designer who can apply it and give suggestions. The work of improving this system is left to the researchers and engineers of Luzon Electric Company.
The only drawback of this current system is that the waste heat energy recovery efficiency is too low, only less than 38%.
After research, Luzon Electric believes that the key to improving conversion efficiency and energy recovery efficiency lies in the catalyst and catalytic system.
As long as the efficiency of converting carbon dioxide and water vapor into methane can be improved, the efficiency of waste heat energy recovery will be improved.
Huang Weida actually knew very well in his heart that it was not because of his own ability, but because the company’s technical reserves were too strong.
When various technologies are combined, they often complement each other and further expand the advantages.
For example, the compression of shipbuilding costs has increased the operational space in ship design, and there is a higher tolerance limit for cost expenditures in the process of applying new technologies.
For example, the localization of gas turbine technology has brought about domestically produced gas turbines with extremely high cost-effectiveness.
If it was still the same as before, and he could only import marine gas turbines from abroad at high prices, Huang Weida would not dare to put into operation four medium-sized gas turbines.
Technological innovation in each production link and the reduction of production costs will have an impact on the final product.
The large-scale cost effect brought about by the systematic technological innovation of Sapiens is a revolutionary change for the entire shipbuilding industry.
At present, the New Luzon Shipyard is still digesting technology, integrating and expanding production capacity. In addition, it has too many orders from its sister companies, so it has not caused a huge impact on the global shipbuilding industry.
But this kind of dormancy cannot be hidden for too long.
Sooner or later, the New Luzon Shipyard will have to show its fangs and compete with the three major shipbuilding countries in the monster house of East Asia.
This is inevitable. Many industries around the world are now moving towards a high degree of monopoly, and the winners will definitely be a minority.
The shipbuilding industry is just a microcosm of this era.
The industrial competition in Asia is becoming increasingly fierce, and the situation in America is becoming increasingly grim.
Mainly ABCD, which suffered consecutive heavy blows last year, has a huge gap in soybean planting this year.
However, the demand for soybeans and corn in the Asian market for food and agricultural products has not increased significantly, and has even declined slightly.
