Event organised by Swadeshi Science Movement (Kerala Chapter of Vignana Bharati) and Cochin Shipyard on 7th during the World Ocean Science Congress Feb 5-8, 2015.
While the panel members outlined various steps for reviving the industry Navgathi highlighed the focus on a very specific policy.
“Encourage industry in adoption technologies that save fuel in ships”
This in context that India imports 80% of crude oil and that any measure that saves fuel on operating cost of ship will save forex. Also increasing number of ships will save forex since cost of transportation by ships are cheaper than road or rail.
1. Save fuel by better design
This is primarily for RSV and Inland vessels where no much effort is put in better design (CFD, model test etc.). It is clear that such techniques can improve the design (hull, propeller) by reducing consumption by 10%. That 10% translates to 25L per year and 500L for a 20 year life cycle in fuel bills for a 3000 DWT vessel (2x 1000 kW power, 100/hr x 24 hr/day x 200 days/yr x 55 rs/l x 10%) (preparing the white paper).
CFD for such a vessel is about 10 L and model test another 10 L (self-propulsion and propeller), total of 20 L giving an ROI of less than a year.
Can govt. support a ship owner if they invest in CFD and model test to an extent?
2. Save fuel by green technologies
There is lot of thrust on solar installation on land. The cost of power from a small engine (about 50 kW) on inland ferries (100 passenger boats) is 15 Rs/kW and is much higher than what can be achieved by installation of solar solutions on boat (See white paper). We are designing and building India’s first solar ferry for Kerala State Water Transport Department since they realise the benefit of saving the fuel cost on the long run (6 year break-even time).
The money spend on such a technology saves forex in the long run.
Can govt. support a ship owner who purchase such boats?