Vanguard Magazine

16 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 www.vanguardcanada.com Marine industry amounts of NOx, another harmful pollut- ant. It can also be used to drive fuel cells as a vehicle for the supply of hydrogen. A variety of hydrogen storage technologies are under development, but it is too soon to assess which of these may prove to be effective. Of course, ships are traditional users of renewable energy, and wind and solar may be partial solutions to decarboniza- tion. Their drawbacks are lack of reliability and energy density. The cloud of sails on a 19th century clipper ship would need to be far larger to provide powering for a large modern cruise or container ship; similarly, the available area for solar pan- els would need to be multiplied hugely to offer anything beyond an auxiliary power source. Integration of these technologies into designs that allow for efficient cargo handling and safe navigation is not simple, though variants such as the Flettner rotor (Figure 2) can represent more practical ap- proaches for some ship types. To summarize, there are no obvi- ous complete solutions currently avail- able that will allow commercial shipping to meet the IMO 2050 targets without fundamentally changing the nature of shipping operations. A group of leading industry organizations has proposed the set-up of a $5 billion research and devel- opment fund for work in this area, with a $2/tonne tax on all marine fuel to drive this. It is likely to be very difficult to get approvals for this at a global level, but something similar may be possible at a more regional level. Canadian issues Canada's economy is highly reliant on marine transportation and will certainly be impacted by the types of changes re- quired by IMO 2050. There are also some challenges – and opportunities – where Canada's position differs from most other countries. The trend towards bigger ships with lower power will have significant impacts on the need for icebreaker services in East- ern and Arctic Canada, even as average ice cover continues to decline. The EEDI formulae include some adjustments for ice class, but designer/owner options for increasing efficiency are very limited, and often going more slowly in ice means stop- ping. Canadian Coast Guard's future fleet requirements need to take this into con- sideration. Meanwhile, Canada has several technol- ogy and resource advantages in a decar- bonized or carbon neutral world. There are several strong fuel cell companies in Canada who are already in partnership with multi-national companies with ma- rine interests. Renewable energy sources such as hydro-electricity and wind can be used to generate zero-emission hydrogen, and reforming hydrogen from methane – currently a significant source of gaseous hydrogen – can be "greened" through car- bon capture. Biofuels are likely to retain at least a niche role, due to their advantages in energy density – for example, in mili- tary applications. This could be another area of competitive advantage for Canadi- ans. Several premiers have been promot- ing modular nuclear reactors as a future power source, and these could potentially have many marine applications. Whether Canada can use any of its ad- vantages to become a leader in future marine technologies – or transportation technologies in general – will depend on whether we can succeed in creating a suit- able ecosystem for innovation and devel- opment. This will be one of the overarch- ing challenges between now and 2050. Andrew Kendrick is the Vice president, Ot- tawa for Vard Marine Inc. He has a long and varied career as a naval architect, in- cluding ship design, applied research, and support to regulatory development at IMO and nationally. His recent projects include work on LNG, marine batteries, hydrogen and other future fuels. Andrew is also president-elect of the Society of Naval Ar- chitects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). Opinions expressed herein are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of Vard or SNAME.

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