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FORTUNE.COM // NOVEMBER 2019
TECH
ker” fuel is chock-full of sulfur, which means
it emits more poisonous gases and harmful
particles when burned than does motor-
vehicle fuel. All told, the maritime industry is
responsible for 2.5% of all greenhouse gases
along with millions of childhood asthma cases
and thousands of premature deaths.
In 2020, the United Nations’ International
Maritime Organization will try to reduce
that environmental impact by requiring all
international vessels except yachts to use fuels
that contain no more than 0.5% sulfur, down
from today’s limit of 3.5%. The cleaner fuel
will drive fuel costs up 30% to 60%, or an
estimated $30 billion annually.
“This is the most dramatic improvement in
global marine fuels in a century,” says James
Corbett, a marine science and policy professor
at the University of Delaware who co-led the
research that prompted the new rules.
For nine years, Silverstream founder Noah
Silberschmidt struggled to get attention with
his London-based company’s air lubrication
technology. The physics behind the bubble
tech was first mentioned in maritime litera-
ture in 1865, but big shipping companies only
recently started embracing it. In addition to
Carnival’s leap into bubbles, Silverstream’s
technology is being used by Norwegian Cruise
Line, a Royal Dutch Shell oil tanker, and soon,
a dozen Grimaldi Group cargo ships. “People
weren’t interested in radical thinking,” Silber-
schmidt says. “Now the industry is waking up.”
Besides bubbles, Carnival is investigating
additional techniques to reduce fuel costs
and emissions. Scrubbers that cut pollution,
sleeker ship designs that reduce drag, and
cleaner fuels like liquid natural gas are just
some of the possibilities.
Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, has put
$1 billion behind a similar effort over the past
four years. The company, which operates 700
container ships, intends to be carbon neutral
by 2050. “In the next 10 years,” says Ole Graa
Jakobsen, Maersk’s head of fleet technology,
“we need some big breakthroughs.”
One such innovation may be rotor sails:
tall, spinning columns manufactured by Finn-
ish startup Norsepower that work like wind
sails but are automated and more powerful.
They reduce fuel consumption by 5% to 20%.
Maersk and Viking Line have already installed
them on some ships.
Meanwhile, Canadian company Corvus En-
ergy makes a lithium-ion battery, a type typi-
cally sensitive to jostling, that can nevertheless
withstand rough seas. Its batteries now power
55% of the world’s 300 electric or hybrid ships.
Environmentalists say, however, that new
technology will have only a limited impact on
pollution. Transport & Environment, an orga-
nization pushing for cleaner transportation,
argues that even with the new rules in 2020,
ships will still belch 100 times as much sulfur
as Europe’s 260 million passenger vehicles.
“It’s frustrating, depressing, angering,” says
Faig Abbasov, Transport & Environment’s
shipping-policy manager.
Emissions are not the industry’s only pollu-
tion problem. In 2016, Carnival was hit with
a $40 million fine and five years of probation
for discharging plastic and food into the ocean,
while also illegally dumping “gray water” from
showers and kitchen sinks. This summer it
received another $20 million fine for violating
that probation.
Given the industry’s spotty track record,
environmentalists are concerned that some
companies will flout the new rules. In many
cases, enforcement will fall on countries with
lax oversight, like Liberia and Panama, where
an increasing number of vessels are registered.
Whatever the case, Carnival’s Kaczmarek
says his company is committed to reducing
its environmental impact, and bubbles may
play an important role. “Our ships have to be
in compliance. There’s not a ton of R&D in
cruising, so we have to figure it out.”
The rotor sail,
see above, is
one of many
new fuel-saving
technologies
gaining traction
in the maritime
industry as it
tries to reduce
emissions.
COURTESY OF NORSEPOWER
