Page 36: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2023)

PROFILE: ARDMORE SHIPPING “Even when I look at liner trades and at green corridors, a lot of those projects are not going to go ‘live’ anytime soon. We are in a capital-intensive business and making the wrong [alternative fuels] decision could be fatal.”

Garry Noonan, Director,

Innovation, Ardmore Shipping ensure that we're getting a depth of research across all differ- “I suppose one of my favorites is simply variable speed ent ? elds and not just the technical ? eld.” drives. Vessels are designed for worst case scenario, fully

While the remit of Noonan’s position is broad, he admits laden, full speed, under challenging environmental conditions. that “formulating and executing our energy transition plan” is We rarely see one of them, never mind three of them all togeth- a primary focus. er. The whole engineering plant is designed to run at 100%. By “At the end of the day, we are a shipping company, so ef? - employing variable speed drives on the main [energy] consum- cient ships are paramount to our business [success and pro? t- ers, we've seen drastic reductions in our fuel consumption … ability],” said Noonan, noting that innovation doesn’t stop on almost a third of our daily hotel load has been reduced.” the ship, with the company expending all efforts to optimize Proving to be both technically and ? nancially successful, he ef? ciency across the system. notes that when they looked at the variable speed drive tech,

While Ardmore has enjoyed a very strong ? nancial run, they estimated a payback period of 18 months, when in reality

Noonan said that “having a strong balance sheet doesn't re- its been a ROI in nine months.

ally change my job all that much. It makes it easier to ask Noonan also sees great value also in micro boilers. “We for money, but our philosophy has always been, ‘If it's good have waste heat units, or economizers, on the main engines – for business, it's good for business whether you're in an up that’s general practice – but not on the generators. “[By using cycle or a down cycle.’ In fact, in a bad market, the energy them on the generators] we've been able to reduce a sizeable ef? ciency increases mean even more.” amount of our boiler consumption while in port. [It may not

Inside Ardmore, each technology, each project must stand sound like much, but] depending on the environmental condi- on its own, and while the technology palette at his disposal tions, it could be upwards of a ton [of fuel] a day, which not is broad, he sees the company joint venture with e1 Marine, too long ago was $800-$900. And one thing's for sure, future which is a methanol to hydrogen reformation company, as a fuels are not going to get any cheaper, so ef? ciencies mean key enabler to fuel cells in deep sea and inland water. “We even more in the future than they will today.” think that fuel cells have a great place in our industry.” Noonan admits that Ardmore has more work to do on the software and soft skills side, noting that this often involves culture change, which is a bit more arduous. But he said that

Putting Tech to the Test

When it comes to narrowing down the technologies that he here, too, Ardmore is seeking to engage the crew – including a and Ardmore have found most bene? cial to cut fuel and emis- WhatsApp group with the energy transition team and the ship sions, Noonan was pressed to select the one or two that truly engineers – effectively empowering them to not only suggest stand out. changes, but to see the monetary impact of the change.

36 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • June 2023

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