News

At the bottom of the ocean lie lumps of valuable metals such as copper, manganese, nickel and cobalt - materials crucial to accelerating the energy transition. A collaboration between five European countries called ‘Blue Harvesting,’ has designed and now tested a new collector that can gather these nodules from the deep sea bottom with minimal disturbance to the natural environment.

The maritime sector needs batteries for the transition to zero-emission shipping. Different ships with different operational profiles may require different batteries. The NWO Executive Board has awarded funding to two research projects of maritime researchers Henk Polinder and Andrea Coraddu. Both will focus on improving the use of different battery systems. The awards involve a sum of 4.2 million euros.

Gabriel Weymouth has been appointed Professor of Ship Hydromechanics at the department of Maritime and Transport Technology as of 1st of September. Weymouth's research focuses on the development of fast, accurate, and robust computational fluid dynamic predictions and application of those techniques to the marine and maritime environment.

This week the new cavitation tunnel will be opened at TU Delft. The research in this facility, officially called the Multi Phase Flow Tunnel (MPFT), largely focuses on two topics: the problem of cavitation in vessel propellers, on the one hand, and the potential of air lubrication in vessels, on the other.

The world badly needs alternatives to fossil fuels that produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, which drive global climate change. One promising alternative is ammonia, which by combining Fuel Cell and Internal Combustion Engine technologies could be used to fuel large ships and heavy road transport.

It looks like an old-fashioned steamboat with two tall chimneys. In reality, the 154-meter-long cargo ship SC Connector - with modern wind-powered propulsion - sails into the port of Rotterdam. "An important development."

Twenty-five companies and knowledge institutes in the maritime industry have joined forces in SH2IPDRIVE: Sustainable Hydrogen Integrated Propulsion Drives. In this innovation programme, they will work together to make hydrogen shipping a reality.