Page 52: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2019)

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TECH FILES

MAN ES INVESTS

IN HYDROGEN

Dubbed a historic milestone e-Navigation & Passage Planning and its entry into the hydro- gen economy, MAN Energy “Passage planning” are two words sound futuristic, but the understanding warnings and weather forecasts – is at a

Solutions announced it is sure to elicit groans from navigators they deliver helps create bene? ts today. navigator’s ? ngertips, without the need globally. The vital yet frustrating pro- Passage Planning is a case in point. to search, stress and update. Suddenly acquiring 40 percent of the cess of developing a complete descrip- appraisal are transformed from a worri- shares of the electrolysis tion of a vessel’s voyage from start to Steps to transformation some burden to an easy check. technology company H-TEC ? nish, berth to berth, is an administra- Passage Planning is a four-stage tive burden, on average consuming 3.5 process, consisting of appraisal, plan- 2. Planning

SYSTEMS. A contract con- hours of of? cer time to collate a plan – ning, execution, and monitoring. The After manually gathering all the rel- ? rming the partial acquisition manually adding elements such as ENC ? rst two stages currently involve much evant information, or the information was signed in Augsburg by Dr. cells, journey waypoints and UKC cal- of the administrative legwork, while they believe to be relevant, the tradi-

Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN culations to a report for inspection by the latter two have been partially ad- tional passage planner moves on to the port state authorities and others. dressed by the developments of ECDIS actual voyage planning. Herein lies the

Energy Solutions, and Ove

Not only laborious, but with repeti- technology over recent years. It worth core workload, and the greatest risk of

Petersen and Heinrich Gärtner, tive manual input, it is a constant source considering each stage in isolation to human error. Each waypoint requires executive managers of the GP of human error. There is an alternative, assess how e-Navigation can transform the manual logging and assessment of and e-Navigation is the key. the whole. an array of different information. It is

JOULE Group. The contract labor intensive and fraught with pos- also makes provisions for a

Driving innovation 1. Appraisal sibilities for inaccuracy. Again, e-Nav- majority or complete takeover

NAVTOR is involved in a number of Appraisal involves gathering relevant igation can help, making it possible for of H-TEC SYSTEMS at a research projects that create platforms information for the upcoming voyage. the navigator to input relevant informa- for innovation in e-Navigation, help- This requires a navigator to navigate tion into their system and automatically ing to deliver on the promise of mak- his or her way through a sea of avail- receive an optimized, safety-checked ing life easier, safer and more ef? cient able resources and information, assess- suggestion – one that includes infor- for navigators, shipowners and opera- ing what is actually needed for a jour- mation such as UKC, areas of heavy tors. These projects, in collaboration ney, ensuring the resources provide the traf? c, potential hazards, and so on. with partners globally, help to deliver latest, up to date material and then in- With integration into bridge networks insights into how technology can un- terpreting and applying the information the route can be sent directly from the lock automated processes and deliver in the correct way. The wealth of re- planning station to the ECDIS, with the

Photo: MAN ES improved ways of working. sources makes it challenging for the of- approved route and passage plan then

For example, NAVTOR is the marine ? cer to know what is needed and what automatically dispatched to the of? ce later date. The company will representative within the ENABLE-S3 is not, with the result that many over on shore. continue to be independently

EU initiative, whereby a multi-national subscribe, wasting time and money. All of a sudden individual vessels represented on the market team are working across transport sec- e-Navigation simpli? es this complex and ? eets have full ef? ciency, safety with no change in the level of tors to explore the way forward for au- start to the Passage Planning journey. and transparency, without the risk of tonomous vehicles. It is also involved With a digital chart table such as human error.

commitment to its customers.

in SESAME-II, assessing possibili- NAVTOR’s NavStation, all data is NAVTOR’s involvement in the EN-

H-TEC SYSTEMS has more ties for automating ship reporting, and available and updated on-board, in one ABLE-S3 EU’s project demonstrated than 20 years’ experience in

M-AR, which is looking at Augmented place. Everything that is required – in- just how effective this could be, with

Reality as an enabler for improved cluding licensed ENC charts, updated a captain manually planning a passage the research and develop- navigational perception. These projects ADP, AENP, and the latest NavArea from Barcelona to Las Palmas/Gran ment of hydrogen technology.

Across sites in Lübeck, Braak

With a digital chart table such as NAVTOR’s NavStation all data is available and updated on-board, in one place. and Augsburg, a team of 20 employees develops and pro- duces stacks and electrolyzers for manufacturing hydrogen with electricity. Since 2010,

H-TEC SYSTEMS has been a subsidiary of GP JOULE, a project developer specializing in renewable energies and sector coupling that retains around 60% of the remaining shares. MAN Energy Solu- tions is receiving two seats on the newly established H-TEC advisory board.

Photo: Navtor 52 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • APRIL 2019

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