Many shipowners are dealing with the decision whether to adopt MGO, LNG or scrubbers for their ships in order to be compliant with the emission reductions introduced by IMO but there are also other ideas, such as Italy’s Grimaldi Group, which is finding a different and unexplored way to date.
The Naples-based shipping company, owner of some 120 roro vessels, is betting on dual-fuel electric propulsion as an alternative to gas considered by Emanuele Grimaldi aa a “potential risk for lack of product availability on the market, furthermore subject to price instability”, and for “a likely inadequate infrastructure system for bunkering”, mainly in Italy.
That’s why the Italian owner asked his ‘energy saving team’ to find an innovative, and still unexplored in shipping to date, solution based on lithium batteries which recharge during the sailing, Grimaldi said to a local media in Italy. A dedicated study has been launched months ago and it’s now in its final stage.
“We are confident to install the first dual-fuel systems on ten ships in our fleet before the end of this year,” Grimaldi told local media.
The project for this dual-fual electric propulsion system has been entirely self-financed and patented and will able to cut emissions by 50% compared to modern vessels, Grimaldi promised.
