MOL launches crane-mounted sail research project
The ‘Delta Sail’ project aims to generate additional propulsion force by unfurling sails fitted to existing cargo handling cranes during transit.
MOL Drybulk operates a large number of vessels equipped with cargo handing cranes, and the company plans to study the installation of the Delta Sail on a broad range of ship types, such as bulkers, wood chip carriers, and multi-purpose vessels.
The joint R&D project, which also includes MOL Drybulk, Ltd., forms part of MOL’s wider decarbonisation strategy, and represents the company’s second wind-assisted propulsion related project after the Wind Challenger hard sail wind-assisted propulsion system.
MOL placed an order for the first vessel equipped with the Wind Challenger system with Oshima Shipbuilding in December 2020, a 99,000 dwt coal carrier, as reported by The Motorship.
While Iknow Machinery does not currently offer any wind-assisted propulsion solutions in its portfolio, it previously gained experience of the operation of a hard sail system during its participation in a Japanese academic-industry research project, which subsequently evolved into the Wind Challenger hard sail wind-assisted propulsion system.
