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Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

wsj.com

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Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#11

Post by spydum »

curiousDog wrote: post #7
fmsf wrote: post #2

It's called the Flettner rotor, it uses the Magnus Effect. Cool stuff but not exactly new tech. It gives a nice read, here's some links to wikipedia on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship I'm curious of what will be the results.

Apparently this is a turbo sail and not the same as the Flettner rotor. The Wikipedia article you linked to mentions the same. Ones powered by electricity and one by air? Both seem to take advantage of the Magnus effect though

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment...

It’s not a turbosail. Turbo sails don’t rotate..

Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#12

Post by [deleted] »

baxtr wrote: post #5
chodeboy wrote: post #4

Not a single word about flettner in that article. Do they hate Germans or does it not fit the ____GROUNDBREAKING____NEVER_DONE_BEFORE____ narrative of today's newspaper articles?

I don’t think WSJ “hates Germans”. Probably just poorly researched

[deleted]

Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#14

Post by kitd »

jessriedel wrote: post #10
fmsf wrote: post #2

It's called the Flettner rotor, it uses the Magnus Effect. Cool stuff but not exactly new tech. It gives a nice read, here's some links to wikipedia on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship I'm curious of what will be the results.

> Rotor ships take advantage of this same effect by spinning a large vertical cylinder, typically using an electric motor, and using the resulting force for propulsion. I always thought sails were partially defined by being passive. I wonder why these aren't called "rotor fans" if they're electrically driven? Is there anywhere it's discussed when rotors are expected to outperform normal fans? They seem to be used onl…

"Fan" implies the propulsion is in response to air being forced backwards.

These rotors create lift in a forwards direction from the wind blowing across them, a bit like having a fixed wing pointing up.

Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#15

Post by gameswithgo »

fmsf wrote: post #2

It's called the Flettner rotor, it uses the Magnus Effect. Cool stuff but not exactly new tech. It gives a nice read, here's some links to wikipedia on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship I'm curious of what will be the results.

The fundamental tech may not be new but the details are, this is lighter and (hopefully) more effective than previous attempts.

Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#16

Post by gameswithgo »

robfitz wrote: post #9
fmsf wrote: post #2

It's called the Flettner rotor, it uses the Magnus Effect. Cool stuff but not exactly new tech. It gives a nice read, here's some links to wikipedia on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_effect and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship I'm curious of what will be the results.

They claim 7-10% reduction in fuel usage, with fuel making up 60% of their total costs. Given that they soon expect to be spending $5 billion/year on fuel for 800 ships, fuel spend is a bit north of $6 million/year for an "average" ship. But size seems to vary widely (they note that only the 80 of their largest ships are being considered for these sails). At an installation cost of $2 million, saving 10% of an "avera…

As long as they are reliable and have non-crazy maintenance costs it should be profitable now. I imagine some time and competition could cut that install cost in half too.

Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#18

Post by abtinf »

Some years ago I read The Box by Marc Levinson, a history of containerized shipping. Highly recommend it. If you live in SF and have wondered about the numerous barely used piers, this book explains their history as well - and why the major container terminal ended up in Oakland instead.

One of the painful early lessons for the industry was the discovery that minimizing operational costs (particularly fuel and maintenance) trumps every other value. A pioneering containerized shipping company went bankrupt pursuing a high-speed shipping strategy that cost marginally more than low-speed competition.

Edit: Oh, there is a second edition! Updated link.

Edit: replaced unhelpful snark.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0691170819/

Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#19

Post by joering2 »

What these ships are mostly surrounded by are waterfields that go as far as you can see. Can they come up with some sort of rolled flexible solar panels that once ship goes into full sail they release their “solar tail” behind that floats on the water surface and captures sun and turns it into electricity for ships’ engines?

I mean 300 meters square of solar panel should be sufficient to push the ship at its nominal speed. For free!

Re: Maersk installed 100-foot-tall rotating sails on one of its tankers

#20

Post by village-idiot »

gameswithgo wrote: post #16
robfitz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They claim 7-10% reduction in fuel usage, with fuel making up 60% of their total costs. Given that they soon expect to be spending $5 billion/year on fuel for 800 ships, fuel spend is a bit north of $6 million/year for an "average" ship. But size seems to vary widely (they note that only the 80 of their largest ships are being considered for these sails). At an installation cost of $2 million, saving 10% of an "avera…

As long as they are reliable and have non-crazy maintenance costs it should be profitable now. I imagine some time and competition could cut that install cost in half too.

Economies of scale too.
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