We must deliver what our customers expect

- Our customers are all moving towards zero emissions. If we can deliver zero-emission vessels, we’ll be able to take a giant strategic step in today’s demanding offshore market. Naturally, we’ve been looking for ways to achieve this.

Last year Egil Arne Skare, who leads the company’s project department, discovered a relatively newly started company in Erlangen Germany, named Hydrogenius. The company is supported by serious academic communities. - Luckily, we stopped here, says Egil Arne Skare. - After pondering a few months at the beginning of the year, I reached out and invited myself to their offices. They knew little about ships. I explained that their technology is really interesting, provided their scientific calculations are correct - minus 20 percent. That is always my buffer, says the project leader, wisened after years of experience with demanding technological processes. At the same time, he was met with a very different environment than he was used to. - Germans are known for not rushing into things. We left Germany without a clear understanding if this was something they were interested in pursuing. I went home and a few days passed. Then they made contact and confirmed that they wanted to go forward with us. Since then, we’ve connected them with our contacts in Siemens and a third supplier of fuel cells. We’ve built a team which now works intensely on hydrogen concept for ships, says Skare, adding that Østensjø have been contacted by other Norwegian shipping companies wanting to participate in the process with Hydrogenius. - In other words, we’re not alone in the work to come, and that can only be good for us. At the same time, we have a hand on the steering wheel with regards to how the project will be organised in collaboration with our Norwegian partners.

CONTROLLED TESTING

- How long until you can start to conclude? - The plan is to do a controlled test on land at a relevant scale in 2021, likely here in Norway - if we can secure the necessary funds. There shouldn’t be any problems, when you think about the ambitions behind Norwegian climate policies and the support structures the government has provided for Enova. It would certainly be fantastic if the project could be completed here in Norway. - And the four new vessels being built in Spain are Hydrogen-ready? - All four of them are constructed with that in mind. We will be using them to test the technology. When testing is complete, there is room for full scale installations.

TWIN ONSHORE

- In the middle of all of this, your project department is working on a project called «Digital Twin». What does that entail? - If you go inside the simulator centre here in Haugesund, Simsea, you’ll find a digital twin to Edda Fauna. Here, crew undertaking training can perform all sorts of practical operations on and with the ship, says Skare, pointing out that there exist more challenging levels of skill and knowledge to be tested. For example, the company hopes to be able to test and verify advanced hydrodynamic models of the ships, where you can test how the vessel reacts to various wave movements. He continues eagerly: - This model can be combined with the 3D-model, that is, Simsea’s visual model of the vessel, in order for the effects to be visualised for the people who are learning how to handle different situations when the vessel is under operation on site. The weather-report for several days can be input to support decision-making. The entire wind farm where the ship operates is input as a map in the model, containing depths and turbine positions and heights. When all of this information is connected, you’ll end up with a fairly realistic picture of the surroundings and circumstances under which the vessel will operate. It even makes it possible to predict days in advance, making operations more efficient and safer, he says, and adds: - In our project department, creating packages like this often means putting multiple of our equipment suppliers together, and helping them excel.

TECH OPTIMIST

Egil Arne Skare does not hide his technological optimism, pointing to all the technological phases Norwegian shipping has been through on the way to greener operations. Since starting in the company, he’s been working with environmental technology every day. Many challenges have been met, standards improved, and greenhouse gas emissions substantially reduced. - The industry has not, and is not, standing still. That goes for Østensjø as well. When the hydrogen challenges are met, we eagerly await the next challenge. There is always another thing, says Skare, while looking into the distance and signalling with his body language that this sort of philosophising is for another day. But he rounds out the conversation by emphasising how important it is for any outwards looking shipping company worth its salt to have something new on offer for its customers. In other words: Skare and his colleagues won’t sit still for long after the hydrogen vessels have been completed and quality assured.

SAMMENDRAG

- VI MÅ LEVERE DET SOM KUNDENE VÅRE VIL HA!

- Kundene våre går ubetinget mot nullutslipp. Om vi kunne levere utslippsfrie fartøyer til dem, ville vi gjøre noe strategisk tungt i dagens krevende offshoremarked. Derfor har vi lett lenge og intenst etter metoder å få dette til på. I fjor fant Egil Arne Skare, leder av rederiets prosjektavdeling, fram til et relativt nystartet selskap i Erlangen i Tyskland, Hydrogenius, som har tunge fagmiljøer bak seg. - Her stanset vi heldigvis opp, sier Egil Arne Skare. Etter noen måneders fundering i begynnelsen av dette året, tok jeg kontakt og inviterte meg ned til dem. De kunne lite om skip. Jeg måtte forklare dem at teknologien deres er kjempeinteressant, gitt at de vitenskapelige utredningene deres stemmer – minus 20 prosent. Det har jeg alltid som en buffer, sier prosjektlederen, klok av mange års erfaring fra krevende teknologiske prosesser. Seinere har rederiet koblet inn sine kontakter i Siemens og en tredje leverandør for brenselceller.

I fortsettelsen har rederiet bygget et lag som nå jobber intenst med et hydrogen-konsept for skip. Østensjø er blitt kontaktet av andre norske rederier som er interessert i å delta i videre prosess med Hydrogenius. - Vi står med andre ord ikke helt alene i det videre arbeid, og det er en bra ting for oss. Samtididig sitter vi litt med hånden på rattet i forhold til hvordan dette prosjektet skal organiseres sammen med våre norske samarbeidspartnere, sier Skare. Planen er at samarbeidspartnerne i 2021 skal kjøre en kontrollert landtest i en relevant skala sannsynligvis her i Norge om de klarer å få fram den nødvendige finansieringspakken.