THE IMPORTANCE OF THE IMPROVEMENTS ON THE
MARITIME TRANSPORT IN THE GLOBAL TRADE
Authors: Dr. Antoni Isalgué Buxeda, Dr. F. Xavier Martínez de Osés and Mrs. Marcel·la
Castells i Sanabra
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – UPC
Spain
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, the transport cost element in the shelf price of consumer goods varies from product
to product, but is ultimately nearly marginal. For example, transport costs account for around
2% of the shelf price of a television set and only around 1.2% of a kilogram of coffee. Global
trade and easy of transport has effectively permitted an enormous variety of resources to be
more widely accessible and has thus facilitated the widespread distribution of our planet’s
common wealth.
Shipping really has provided the most cost-effective method of bulk transport over any great
distance. More than 90 per cent of global trade is carried by sea. Shipping has done a double
sided effort in the last decades; this is in the consumption and safety. Concerning consumption,
99.8% of merchant ships use now diesel engines for their propulsion, and it should be noted that
significant technical advances have been done from the year 1975 when the consumptions
ranged about 175-180 g of fuel per HP and hour, to around 120 g per HP and hour in 1995.
However, most improvements have been devoted to increase safety and reliability, but also to
reducing manpower needed to operate. In fact, the International Convention for the Safety of
Life at Sea and the International Convention for the Maritime Pollution, from the Maritime
Organization (IMO), starting the first after the Titanic disaster in 1912, recommends and forces
measures to be taken to increase safety, later to reduce pollution and spills (MARPOL
conventioni) and now also accounts for emissions of ships.
This paper emphasizes the need and the role of "smart" regulating organisms in order to
improve the global functioning, based on an analogy to other systems.
KEYWORDS
1. Maritime Transport 2.Analogy system 3.Safety and consumption
INTRODUCTION
The seaborne trade in 2006 increased to 6.98 109 metric tons, around 4.8% over the
previous year. Over the last four decades, total seaborne trade estimates have more than
quadrupled, from less than 6 1012 ton-miles in 1965 to the figure of 25 1012 ton-miles in
2003. As of 2005, the world trading fleet was made up of more than 46,200 ships of
more than 100 gross tons, with a combined tonnage of near six hundred million gross
tons. Near 25% of these ships are tankers.
The price of marine bunkers is closely related to the crude price. Up to the year 1973,
the bunker cost was minima and ships did not need to reduce consumptions and their
engines look for a high output, mechanical simplicity and easy maintenance. However
nowadays the scenario has changed to the opposite situation and to this economical
factor we should add the interest for environment and the need to reduce the CO 2
emissions.
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US dollars per metric
ton
IFO 380 prices at Rotterdam
Dates
Figure 1. IFO 380 prices at Rotterdam. Despite the price has been dropped from the
summer time, it has been maintained at 200 $ per metric ton, on average. Source: Own,
based on www.bunkerworld.com data
All life and all economic areas are affected by the climate, so it seems that the reduction
of greenhouse gases (including CO2) is important. Transport is almost wholly dependent
on oil for energy, and the rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is causing concern.ii
Large emphasis has been put on energy uses in housing, industry, and road and plane
transport. As it is considered that, “aviation sector is considered among other large
polluters”.iii Up to now, few reports deal with CO2 emissions in maritime transport,
apart from other related emissions like sulphur dioxides or nitrogen oxides (and
prohibiting deliberate emissions of ozone-depleting substances) as the limits posed in
certain areas known as SECA’s (Sulphur Emission Control Areas) by IMOiv Annex VI
to the MARPOL, dealing with air pollution. It is believed that stricter regulations are
needed, to do the sea transport more efficient in terms of air emissions, against road
transport, at least in certain areas where rigorous regulations are applied like Euro IV, V
or the future VI, like in Europe. Even we should consider that international ocean
shipping is not incorporated in the nowadays in force Kyoto protocol.
The main reason might be two fold: on the one hand, it is believed that its weight is low
(for instance, European plans do not account for this kind of transport). On the other
hand, large problems exist in part of the maritime transport, mostly known by public as
the fuel spills or the loss of vessels. However the overall safety record of shipping has
been improving steadily for many years, being the worst years, 1978 and 1979, when up
to 938 losses occurred, approaching in the year 2004, to the mark of hundred per year.
Additionally it should be remarked that maritime transport is only responsible for some
12% of the total marine pollution generated from human activities.v The reality results
as the interlock of economic and political issues, a large amount of transport, and the
existence of convenience flags which are used to enlarge short-term incomes, many
times through higher risk transport.
Further on, technical improvements have been essentially devoted to improve safety,
and to reduce time of transport and man-work used for a given quantity of transport,
with the aim to gain confidence and lower costs.
The main aim of this paper is to show an analysis of the global functioning of maritime
transport in order to assess the needs of improve this system and to compare with
analogy system. The paper has been divided into three main sections. Firstly, the needs
of the maritime transport are described. Secondly, an analogy system is described and
finally, conclusions comparing both systems are drawn.
THE SCENARIO
Large advances have been done when comparing navigation in 1925 and in XXI
century. We should remark also that over the last four decades, total seaborne trades
have passed from less than 6 thousand billion tonne-miles in 1965 to a total of over
25·1012 tonne-miles of trade.vi Shipping trade estimates are usually calculated in tonne –
nautical miles, that means a measurement of tones carried, multiplied by the distance
travelled.
Specifically, the seaborne trade in 2006 increased by 4.8 per cent over previous year, to
6.98·109of metric tonsvii. Being the approximate volume in the year 2001 of 5.48 ·109 of
metric tonnes around 5.71 ·109 of metric tons in the year 2002, or 5.96·109 of metric
tons in the year 2003. Considering the global emissions from ships of 100 registered
tonnes and above in the year 2002, reached to about 634 million of metric tons.viii
This scenario is improved when talking about the river or inner canal navigation, as
dealing with energy efficiency 1 kilogram of oil can move along 1 kilometre, up to 50
metric tonnes by truck, 97 metric tonnes by rail and up to 127 metric tonnes by inner
navigation.ix
Research undertaken by British government, demonstrated that energy consumption of
road transport by truck lies in the range of 0.7 to 1.2 MJoules/metric tonne x km,
lowering to 0.3 MJoules/metric tonne x km of a 3,000 deadweight coastal tanker at 14
knots or the 0.12 MJoules/metric tonne x km of a medium size containership (1200
TEU’s at 18.5 knots).
“At present there is no technological solution available to reduce CO2 emissions, so the
only way to reduce transport’s contribution to global warming is to reduce its carbon
dependency through the increased use of alternative fuels, greater efficiency in fuel use,
increased occupancy and load factors, and through reducing distances travelled”. In
recent years “the technical improvement of the fuel economy” in road transport “was
traded off by increased size of vehicles, decreasing number of passengers per vehicle,
higher motor power and possibly also ecologically less sound driving habits” said
Tapio.
In fact 99.8% of ships use diesel engines for their propulsion, and it should be noted that
significant technical advances have been done from the year 1975 when the
consumptions ranged about 175-180 g per installed HP and hour, to around 120 g per
HP and hour in 1995. The final result is impressive, because from a turbine steam
tanker from 1975 to the same power diesel engine in the year 2005, the consumption
figures have halved. This is to say that considering hull improvements, propellers and
hull paintings, the consumption for a 300,000 deadweight tonnes tanker passed from
230 – 250 tonnes per day in 1975 to 80-90 tons per day in 2005.x
In order to get a real contention of CO2 emissions, most probably it will be needed the
conjunction of different resources, starting by the following:
 Reduction of the emissions impact, through the use of cleaner or new
composition fuels (less sulphur contents).
 New technologies in engines like selective catalytic reduction, humid air motor
technologies or scrubbers on board.
 Reducing the electricity consumption, improving the ships hydrodynamics,
adjusting the ship’s speed or the use of appendixes to reduce the consumed
energy like sails or wind generators.
 Better use of TIC for meteo forecast and logistics, purposes.
 Adjustment of speed to real needs.
There have been significant improvements in marine engine efficiency, improved hull
designs or larger cargo capacities, have led to a reduction in emissions and an increase
in fuel efficiency. It is expected improvements in hull design in the future, leading to
further reductions in oil consumption with consequent reductions in air pollution, as
today engines giving a 30%-40% reduction in discharges of nitrogen oxides, with future
reductions of 60%.
However, the problem we face nowadays is how improvements (in pollution, emissions,
safety) will be put to work on the maritime transport, as any improvement needs some
effort to be implemented.
THE ANALOGY
In general terms, we can describe the above system with the analogy with other wellknown systems.
From a Darwinian view of natural selection, we can see that mobility (which requires
mechanical work) and adaptability and the ability to produce resources (aspects that are
very closely linked to mobility and to the availability of mechanical work) have been
the factors that have led to the dominance of some species over others. Then, the
importance of transport and mobility is clear, as is also the availability of work.
The availability of work in important quantities means that there is a real possibility of
effectively changing things, both in their internal state and in the environment that
surrounds them. Also, this change must be capable of going in any direction (unlike
heat, which can only move in one direction, that of equalising temperatures, which is
the general rule in our universe). The outstanding importance of work, or rather of the
availability of work, can be seen throughout human history. In fact, the industrial
revolution took place when we tried to increase the extraction of resources, the
production of coal, and started to use equipment or "machines" which used natural
energy resources (coal and fuel) to make large amounts of work available.
Thermal engines are used to produce work based on heat transfer, and that they are the
subject matter that is studied in thermodynamics, a science with a very wide range of
applications. We can say that sources of energy and their use on a human scale follow
basic thermodynamic principles, especially those of energy conservation and the global
increase in entropy for the whole universe.
The detailed analysis of the functioning of thermal machines shows that in simple
situations an external source of work is required in order to make them function
continuously (or cyclically), or that an element which forces the system to return to the
initial situation is requiredxi .For instance, when we are dealing with gas operating in a
cylinder in a gas machine, it needs to be compressed from time to time in order to
complete the cycle. This requires the use of a certain amount of work from outside the
system. As an example, let us consider that we have a heat source (hotter than the
environment), and some media, water, and we want to obtain some work. If we simply
put some water near the hot source, steam is produced, and goes up because it is lighter
than air, so maybe the steam can do some light work, as elevate a sheet of paper (fig. 2).
Figure 2. Some small amount of work can be easily obtained from a heat source (“Fire”
here) and a material media (“water” here). Source: own.
However, one might increase dramatically the amount of work obtained by using a
more elaborate approach, in this case, forcing the steam to impulse a complex device,
either an alternative machine or a turbine (fig. 3). It should be noted that, in order to
obtain considerable amounts of work we need to have a relatively complex machine, a
turbine or equivalent, in a specific place, so that the steam moves the turbine on leaving
the heated chamber as in fig.3.
Figure 3. The amount of work available (and the power) can be increased dramatically
with a more complex approach. Source: own.
Now, it can be observed that the system cannot work indefinitely if a limited quantity of
water is available, as steam is lost after performing work in the turbine. An immediate
solution might be to enclose the exiting steam in a large recipient, so water is not lost
(fig. 4). It would be realized that, in the same conditions that previously (heat,
temperature, amount of water), less work might be obtained. Also, the system will not
work indefinitely.
Figure 4. Water is not lost. Source: own.
A better performance might be obtained if the large recipient where the steam goes after
doing work in the turbine is cooled. In fig. 4 we schematize this with some ice cooling,
at least, part of the recipient.
Figure 5. Cooling at some point increase the possibilities to obtain more work, and
diminishes the requirement of space to avoid loss of steam or water. Source: own.
In fact, if steam is condensed at some part after the turbine, the volume of the space
might be reduced without considerable effects on the available work. However, this
system will not be able to work continuously; a further improvement is shown in fig. 6,
which incorporates a pump to fill again the original tank from the condensed water.
Figure 6. System with a re-circulating pump. Source: own.
It has to be noted that the pump needs work to operate; the water will not enter the
original space without forcing it into. The forcing element (the pump) needs work to
operate, in order to make the system “sustainable” in the sense that, if the source of heat
(the fire, or the solar energy) and the source of cold (the ice, or the cold exterior space)
are in place, work might be obtained continuously.
Of course, it might be realized that in this idealised case, where friction is not
considered, and with quite different hot and cold temperatures, the work needed to
operate the pump is much lower than the work obtainable at the turbine.
By analogy, it can be expected that to make a complex system function properly, and
not to waste unnecessarily the resources (as in fig. 2 or 3 the obtaining of work means
the loss of water), forcing elements would be needed. In the human society, this might
take the form of norms and laws, and the force needed to impose these norms might be
cultural, of economic agents, or even military.
CONCLUSIONS
By the analogy of the above system, we can draw the following scheme of figure 7,
where the lower box is analogue to the forcing element shown on figure 6.
INCREASE OF
SHIPPING
TRANSPORT
Need of speed,
manpower and units
The system
works better
Reduce of safety and
reliability
More accidents and
consumption
More pollution
and more loses
Need norms and
regulating organisms
Figure 7. Scheme of the needs of the maritime transport. Source: own.
In the case of maritime transport, the fact that norms and laws were needed for reduce
the pollution and the safety, and would be put into force, became evident after the
Titanic disaster. The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)
and the International Convention for the Maritime Pollution, from the Maritime
Organization (IMO), recommends and forces measures to be taken to increase safety,
later to reduce pollution and spills (MARPOL convention) and now also accounts for
emissions of ships. The convenience of the adoption of these measures is now widely
accepted, but force might be needed to impose further norms, as maybe some force
would be needed to avoid piracy in some places.
A continuous state of lots of forcing measures would be difficult to maintain in human
societies. Fortunately, there might be better methods. For instance, it has to be noted
that, in our example, an increase in the complexity of the system (for example, using a
gear or a chain connecting appropriately the turbine to the pump in the above case, or
using a flywheel or various cylinders in an alternative machine) may allow
independence from the external work source. In these cases, part of the work returns to
the system, thus allowing the cycle to continue. In the human society, this would mean
that a “smart” complex network of interrelationships among the partners might made
evident for them that the best they can do is adapt the norms, so the profits will increase
for all the parts.
This suggests, as a possible statement of a general law, that increasing complexity in
some systems makes it easier to produce work cleanly, which gives them an advantage
as they have more useful work available. This should not be interpreted as questioning
the conclusions of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which talks of the "tendency to
move towards universal uniformity" considering the whole universe. Our argument says
that an increase in the complexity of a system might occur if it means that it can
produce or obtain more (or sufficient) resources to continue functioning in the new
state. However, the Second Principle of Thermodynamics is not put on question, as this
principle refers to the global increase of entropy and global tendency to uniformization,
nothing is imposed on a local basis, in our case an increase in complexity in the local
scale would be compensated by a different use of resources globally.
Now we can define the concept of smart complexity as the complexity of a system
which "forces the necessary parts" and does not need any external action in order to
achieve cyclic (sustainable) functioning, in the meaning that Shukuya uses, based on
solar energy and the exchange with the distant universe (avoiding excessive warming of
the Earth). Internal regulation has to be provided/constructed by human law, culture,
etc.
Concerning maritime transport, the fundamental role of international organisms as IMO
should be to enunciate and, eventually, put into force, the norms needed for a good
functioning of transport worldwide. Its role has to be not only to enunciate, but also to
teach or to make that a favourable opinion exists versus the opportunity and
convenience of the norms, in order to make a "smart complexity" to exist making use of
force minimal to accomplish the rules.
i
International Convention for the prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973
Tapio, P. et altri. Energy and transport in comparison: Immaterialisation, dematerialisation and
decarbonisation in the EU 15 between 1970 and 2000.
iii
Kaplan, K.H, Issues & letters. Physics today, May 2007
iv
International Maritime Organization, London 2005
v
International Maritime Organisation, International shipping – carrier of world trade. 2005
vi
International Maritime Organisation, International shipping – carrier of world trade. 2005
vii
ISL World seaborne trade and port traffic. Bremen, 2007
viii
Endresen, Ø. A historical reconstruction of ship’s fuel consumption and emissions. Journal of
geophysical research. 2007
ix
ADEME Agence française de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie, 2001.
x
Dr. Rafael Gutiérrez Fraile. El ahorro energético y las energías alternativas en los buques, con el
petróleo a 100 $/barril. Ingeniería Naval magazine, 2007
xi
M. Shukuya: Thermodynamic consideration for sustainable architecture, PLEA'96 (Louvain-la-Neuve,
Belgium), pp. 319-324, 1996.
ii