Technical Presentation: Pioneering Air Lubrication for Shipping

Abstract:

For over a decade, London-based Silverstream Technologies has pioneered air lubrication technologies within shipping. As clean technology leaders, they understand the relevance and importance of the solution to the IMO’s decarbonisation goals and passionately believe in the role of proven, innovative technologies in enabling a more sustainable shipping industry.

From a successful initial trial installation on the Danebrog Rederi tanker MT Amalienborg, sponsored by Shell, their technology has since been proven on many cruise ship installations. The solution is market-mature and has been adopted by industry leaders including MSC, Grimaldi, Carnival, and many others.

Uniquely within the market, their air lubrication technology harnesses fluid shearing – a natural phenomenon that occurs when two fluids of differing density move past each other – to create a microbubble carpet across the full flat bottom of the hull. This friction-reducing microbubble carpet maximises the emissions reduction and efficiency savings potential of the technology.

This presentation will provide an overview of Silverstream Technologies proprietary Air Lubrication System, the Silverstream® System. The natural phenomenon underpinning the technology, the Kelvin Helmholtz instability phenomenon will be introduced, and the main types of air lubrication concepts will be described. Following discussion on the application of the technology for various vessel types, several case studies will be referenced to provide details on the installation and performance of the system.

Speaker:

Daniel Mann, Programme Director

+44 7936 304898 / danielmann@silverstream-tech.com

Daniel joined Silverstream in 2020 as Programme Director with responsibility for Silverstream’s indirect sales channels. He has over 20 years’ experience in maritime, power generation and oil and gas industries, with Rolls-Royce, MAN Diesel & Turbo, Dresser-Rand, Siemens and, most recently, Ethos Energy where he was the Global Sales Director for its light gas turbine business. Throughout his career, he has held senior roles in Sales, Service, Business Development and Business Management and brings vast experience in ship equipment retrofit projects and servicing.

Daniel holds an MSc in Project Management from the University of Manchester, and an MBA from Manchester Business School.

+44 7772 624022 / joshmacklin@silverstream-tech.com

Josh joined Silverstream Technologies as a Project Engineer in January 2019 after four and a half years working at QinetiQ, an industry leading science and technology company. Josh spent two years moving around the maritime division on a graduate scheme, gaining experience in naval architecture consultancy, ship design, autonomy and model testing. In 2016 Josh took on the role of Associate Engineer within the Ship Hydrodynamic Experimentation team at QinetiQ Haslar and gained experience leading trials both at model and full scale.

Josh then spent 18 months seconded to the Naval Design Partnership in Bristol to work on the Fleet Solid Support programme as Auxiliary Systems Engineer. His responsibilities included detailed design work for HVAC, cooling water and compressed air systems as well as development of the ship technical specification.

Josh graduated from Newcastle University in 2014 with a MEng degree in Marine Engineering. Josh is a member of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology and is on the path to becoming a Chartered Engineer.