Partner Article
Royston making waves with marine energy management technology
Tyneside-based Royston Diesel Power has secured funding support from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, for its new flagship £1.5million ‘Managing Energy on Marine Vessels’ project.
Royston, which operates an advanced technology and engineering workshop on the banks of the Tyne in Walker, aims to develop a system for monitoring energy usage throughout an entire ship or maritime vessel, ensuring that all systems needed to operate the vessel are running at optimum performance and within environmental rules.
The highly-innovative project is being conducted in collaboration with Newcastle University’s internationally renowned School of Marine Science & Technology, which has significant expertise in UK and EU funded projects to develop technology for marine design, energy efficiency, emissions monitoring and environmental protection.
The project’s aim is to produce a system capable of understanding and managing the complex energy flows around a vessel by using a sophisticated monitoring system, integrated with dedicated software and the development of new products and services to aid vessel efficiency.
It is hoped the three-year project will create at least 5 high-skilled jobs within the company. The project will initially focus on developing a system for smaller vessels such as harbour tugs then for progressively larger vessels such as offshore supply vessels and passenger ferries. These will be provided by shipping companies Svitzer, Topaz and CalMac Ferries, who are collaborative partners on the project.
The ultimate goal is to reduce the environmental impact of shipping and maritime activities, such as the reduction of COâ emissions and poisonous air pollutants both when the vessel is at sea, and mitigating the effect on near-by communities when the vessel is in port.
The system will also focus on the prevention of catastrophic faults and failures through early warning diagnostics. It is predicted that the proposed whole-vessel system will generate considerable financial reward to end-users from efficiency savings and reduced ‘port dues’ for ships demonstrating compliance towards reduced energy consumption.
Lawrence Brown, Managing Director of Royston Diesel Power, said: “We are delighted that Royston’s reputation as innovators in marine engineering has been recognised by the award of this grant by Innovate UK to help us develop this important project here in the North East.
“Managing energy on marine vessels is an ambitious and challenging project as the performance of one system within a vessel is under the influence of many other interconnected systems, all of which affect energy usage.
“The project will push boundaries and allow us to develop new methodologies and technologies. The collaboration with Newcastle University is particularly important from a research standpoint and allows the project to benefit the wider marine and academic community as a whole. For Royston, we hope that this project will bring an excellent return on investment and added value to the company and our suppliers from significantly increased sales in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. “
Dr Kayvan Pazouki, Lecturer and Stream Leader in Marine Engineering, Newcastle University, said:
“This is a great opportunity to move our research forward in developing practical applications for the latest marine monitoring and measurement technologies.
“It delivers benefits for our students, too, as the project will provide valuable new teaching opportunities for a number of modules as part of our undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The University has had a very productive relationship with Royston for a number of years now, and I look forward to building on this throughout this project.”
The need for a whole-vessel monitoring system is driven by environmental legislation produced by the European Union and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).
Since 1973, the IMO has adopted and refined the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, known as MARPOL. Since 2011, this legislation has been expanded to include a package of measures for mandatory technical and operational measures to reduce emissions from international shipping.
This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by James Dunbar .
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