Wings for Ships

WingTek正在开发一种创新的刚性Wingsail系统，以加速大型商业船舶上风力辅助推进系统的部署，其目标是减少燃料使用、成本、污染和二氧化碳排放。全球航运业共有5.5万艘商船，每年消耗超过2亿吨化石燃料，产生有害气体和颗粒物排放，每年产生7亿吨二氧化碳，占全球总量的3%。目前燃料成本非常高，用于减少污染物的低硫燃料成本更高，新的绿色无二氧化碳替代燃料尚未广泛使用。因此，船东正面临着巨大的经济压力和越来越大的监管压力，要求他们减少或消除化石燃料的使用，并找到降低更环保替代品成本的方法。没有一种简单、单一的方法可以替代船舶使用柴油燃料。为了满足这些需求，商业航运将不再使用化石燃料，这将需要多种技术的混合使用，以经济地实现排放目标。正是在这里，风辅助作为“辅助推进”而不是主推进，可以发挥重要而有效的作用。风能是广泛可用的，在使用点是免费的，不需要新的燃料生产和分配基础设施。它的开发成本低廉，而且不产生任何排放。作为辅助推进系统，它的优势在于允许主发动机以较低的转速运行，同时保持正常的船舶速度——无论使用哪种类型，都可以节省燃料——并降低成本、污染物和二氧化碳排放。该项目提供了两种新型刚性翼帆的全尺寸原型，用于商用船舶的大规模部署。这种设计简单、坚固、轻便，非常适合大规模生产。它是自供电的，不需要来自船只的动力，这意味着安装更简单，更快，更便宜。最重要的是，这种设计确保了船灯不会被翼帆遮挡，因此在安装后仍然符合国际碰撞规则。作为该项目的一部分，将制造两个可操作的原型装置，一个安装在岸上进行永久测试，另一个安装在英国商船上进行为期数月的海上试验，以展示和测量实际的燃料节省。

WingTek is developing an innovative rigid Wingsail System to accelerate the deployment of wind auxiliary propulsion on large commercial vessels, with the goal of reduced fuel use, costs, pollution and CO2 emissions.The 55,000 commercial ships that make up the global shipping industry consume over 200M tonnes of fossil fuel each year, produce harmful gas and particulate emissions and generate 700M tonnes of CO2 annually, which is 3% of the global total. Fuel costs are currently very high, low sulphur fuels to reduce pollutants cost even more and new green CO2-free alternative fuels are not yet widely available.As a result ship owners are experiencing significant economic and increasing regulatory pressure to reduce or eliminate their use of fossil fuels and find ways of mitigating the cost of the more environmentally friendly alternatives.There is no simple, single alternative to the use of diesel fuels in ships. Transitioning commercial shipping away from fossil fuels to satisfy these demands will require a hybrid mix of technologies to achieve emissions targets economically. It is here that wind assistance, used as "auxiliary propulsion" rather than primary propulsion, can play a significant and effective role.Wind is widely available, free at the point of use & needs no new fuel production and distribution infrastructure. It is inexpensive to exploit and produces no emissions. Its strength as an auxiliary propulsion system is in allowing the main engine to run at lower revs whilst maintaining normal vessel speeds - saving fuel whichever type is used - and reducing costs, pollutants and CO2 emissions.This project delivers two full-size prototypes of a new rigid Wingsail designed for mass-deployment on commercial ships. This design is simple, robust and lightweight making it ideal for mass manufacture. It is self-powered, needing no power from the vessel, which means installation is simpler, faster and less expensive. Most importantly, the design ensures the vessel lights are not obscured by the wingsail and so still meets the international Collision Regulations after installation.Two operational prototype units will be manufactured as part of this project, one installed on shore for permanent testing and one installed on a UK commercial vessel for extended sea-trials over several months to demonstrate and measure real-world fuel savings.