Chapter 214: Tapping into Potential

After listening to Huang Weida’s presentation, the engineers finally understood the specific plan.

In truth, shipbuilding technology had advanced significantly since the turn of the twenty-first century, especially in terms of energy efficiency and emissions reduction.

This was mainly because energy efficiency and emissions reduction lowered shipping costs. Shipping companies naturally preferred more efficient transport vessels, which in turn spurred shipbuilders to invest heavily in technological improvements.

"I’ve discussed some of the current cutting-edge technologies with a few colleagues. There are four that are particularly suitable..."

Huang Weida took out his tablet and pulled up some information on the four technical proposals.

These four proposals were: low-speed, large-diameter propellers; an ultra-lightweight hull; a high-efficiency combined gas turbine unit; and a waste gas and heat recovery system.

"The ultra-lightweight hull has already been implemented on this ship," Huang Weida said, pointing to the modular hull section to one side.

Everyone was very familiar with this technology.

A typical 6,500 TEU container ship has a net deadweight of 80,000 tons. Its lightship displacement is 24,000 tons, and its full load displacement can reach 120,000 to 130,000 tons.

This lightship displacement includes the hull, equipment, lubricating oil, and fresh water, with the hull itself accounting for about 19,000 tons.

After switching to silicon-aluminum steel, the weight of a hull with the same specifications is reduced to around 12,000 tons, a full 7,000-ton reduction in hull weight.

This change was primarily due to the difference in material density.

Ordinary ship steel has a density coefficient of around 7.5, while silicon-aluminum steel’s is only about 4.8.

This reduction in hull deadweight can be converted into container cargo capacity, increasing the payload for 6,500 standard containers to an upper limit of 87,000 tons.

This effectively saves nearly 9% in shipping costs.

Huang Weida continued his explanation. "Low-speed, large-diameter propellers are also a common method for retrofitting older ships for energy efficiency, but manufacturing them presents a technological hurdle."

Hearing about a technological hurdle for large-diameter propellers, Yino immediately laughed. "That’s one thing we don’t have to worry about."

"Haha..."

"Indeed."

The others weren’t concerned about this issue either.

Other shipbuilders’ parts suppliers might face technical difficulties in producing qualified large-diameter propellers.

But New Luzon Shipbuilding Company’s supplier was Sea Snail New Material. They could produce not just large-diameter propellers, but even extra-large ones, all with outstanding performance and service life.

"According to my supercomputer simulations, a contra-rotating, low-speed, large-diameter propeller arrangement can reduce energy consumption by about 8%."

Yino stroked his chin, suddenly recalling a technology that had become popular in recent years. "Aren’t Daewoo Shipbuilding and the Germans experimenting with a technology called rotor sails? I think they can also save about 8% on energy."

"That technology does exist, but rotor sails aren’t suitable for container ships. Their application is quite narrow," Huang Weida said, shrugging helplessly.

The others understood as soon as they thought about it.

Container ships need to carry containers, leaving insufficient deck space to install bulky rotor sails.

Ore carriers, cement carriers, grain carriers, passenger ships, and oil tankers, however, could be fitted with them.

This technology wouldn’t be difficult for the current New Luzon Shipyard. In fact, they could do it even better. After all, with the support of various new materials, it would be hard to fail.

"As for the gas turbine and the waste gas and heat recovery system, they’re actually an integrated package. With current technology, they could reduce energy consumption by another 10% or so."

Yino nodded. "I’ve seen the internal papers on this system. It seems the automobile company is already using it."

"That’s right. Our technology is adapted from Qingye Automobile Company, and we’ve added our own improvements," Huang Weida explained with a smile.

"It’s a combined unit configuration, right?" Yino had clearly identified the key point.

Huang Weida’s smile widened. "You have a sharp eye, Engineer Yino."

His plan wasn’t complicated. Leveraging the smaller size of gas turbines and the fact that they didn’t need to import them, he proposed replacing the previous heavy-duty gas turbine with four smaller gas turbine units.

The purpose of this was to circumvent the weakness of gas turbines: low efficiency at low speeds.

A cargo ship’s economic cruising speed is around 11 to 13 knots. Although many cargo ships can reach maximum speeds of over 20 knots, in practice, no shipping company would choose to travel that fast.

High speeds mean energy consumption multiplies several times over, making it not worth the cost.

By switching to four medium-sized gas turbines, two could run at full load for daily operations, with the other two serving as backups.

When deceleration was needed, they could shut down one turbine and gradually reduce the power of the other.

And in the event of equipment failure or the need for acceleration, they could activate the backup turbines.

The ship could also be equipped with a flywheel energy storage device for rapidly starting the gas turbines or for emergency braking.

The waste gas and heat recovery system didn’t need much introduction, as Qingye Automobile was already applying it.

As for the waste gas and heat recovery system, Huang Weida was just a ship designer. He could apply it and offer suggestions, but the task of improving the system would fall to the researchers and engineers at Luzon Electric Company.

Currently, the system’s only drawback was its low waste heat energy recovery efficiency, which was less than 38%.

After conducting research, Luzon Electric Company believed the key to improving both conversion and energy recovery efficiency lay in the catalyst and the catalytic system.

If they could improve the efficiency of converting carbon dioxide and water vapor into methane, the waste heat energy recovery efficiency would increase.

’It’s not that I’m so brilliant,’ Huang Weida knew in his heart. ’It’s that the company’s technological reserves are just too strong.’

’When you combine various technologies, they often create a synergistic effect, further amplifying our advantages.’

’For example, reducing shipbuilding costs has created more leeway in ship design, giving us a higher tolerance for the expenses associated with implementing new technologies.’

’And take the domestication of gas turbine technology, which has given us extremely cost-effective domestic turbines.’

’If we still had to import expensive marine gas turbines from abroad like before, I would never have dared to propose a four-unit, medium-sized gas turbine configuration.’

Technological innovations in every production stage, along with falling production costs, all impact the final product.

And the massive cost efficiencies brought about by Homo Sapiens Company’s systematic technological revolution were nothing short of a sea change for the entire shipbuilding industry.

Right now, New Luzon Shipbuilding Company was still digesting the technology, integrating and expanding its production capacity. Coupled with a flood of orders from its own sister companies, it hadn’t yet made a huge impact on the global shipbuilding industry.

But this period of lying low couldn’t last forever.

Sooner or later, New Luzon Shipbuilding Company would have to bare its fangs and face off against the three great shipbuilding nations in the gauntlet of East Asia.

It was inevitable. Many global industries were moving toward high levels of monopolization, and the winners would certainly be few.

The shipbuilding industry was just a microcosm of the times.

As industrial competition in Asia grew fiercer, the situation in America was also looking increasingly grim.

This was mainly because the ABCD companies, having suffered successive heavy blows last year, were now facing a huge shortfall in their soybean cultivation.

However, the grain and agricultural product markets in Asia showed no significant increase in demand for soybeans and corn; in fact, it had even decreased slightly.