Wind-assisted short-sea container ship design unveiled

The Belgian zero-emission vessel developer Zulu Associates, together with its subsidiary Anglo Belgian Shipping Company Ltd., has unveiled details of a 200-TEU short-sea container vessel, Zulu Mass, featuring an auxiliary wind assistance system.

The vessel has been developed by Dutch naval architects at Conoship International. It is a seagoing version of a smaller inland waterway vessel, the 90-TEU X-Barge, currently under final construction design, the company said in a statement.

Zulu Associates CEO, Antoon van Coillie, revealed that designers envisage that the potentially unmanned vessel will operate with modular energy containers using batteries and/or hydrogen power systems to provide energy. Discussions with providers of energy on a use basis are running in parallel with the vessel design.

"Working with Conoship, we are challenging ourselves to build the most advanced and innovative vessel we can," van Coillie declared. "As a result, apart from being fully electric and autonomous, we are adding wind blades and examining wave foil propulsion. This is a very exciting time for short-sea shipbuilding, where traditional concepts are being challenged, driving change and enabling new zero-emission possibilities."

Van Coillie noted that autonomy is still an early stage of development, but the team aims to show what is possible and support the process of regulation keeping pace with innovation. Therefore, the Zulu Mass has been designed as an unmanned vessel as part of the Maritime Autonomy System, allowing it to compete with fossil-fueled or hybrid vessels.

"Belgium is at the forefront of marine innovation and has had a legal framework for pilot projects featuring unmanned vessels in the North Sea since July 2021," van Coillie said. "That has given us the confidence to embrace and invest in the Zulu Mass, where some in the industry were being much more cautious."

“Now, Belgium, the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aiming to harmonise the procedures to obtain certification for an unmanned ship to sail between the four countries. This should result in a single request replacing the need of having to apply for two to more permits. We aim to seize the initiative of this opportunity and get the Zulu Mass in the water as a world-first and industry trailblazer in 2025,” he said.