APL's new cold-ironing plan

APL'S NEW COLD-IRONING PLAN

NEPTUNE Orient Lines' container ship operating subsidiary APL says it has developed a "potential breakthrough plan to curb vessel exhaust emissions at US seaports through a new approach to cold-ironing."

With financial support from the Port of Oakland, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), the world's eighth-largest container carrier said it will test the concept this summer aboard the APL China.

APL says: “If the 18-hour trial is successful, cold-ironing could become the maritime industry's most effective tool in the quest to curb air pollution from ships.

“We're hopeful that this will be a significant step forward in improving coastal air quality,” said APL Americas President John Bowe, speaking from the APL China berth at the company's Middle Harbor Terminal in Oakland. ?

Engineers at APL have devised a plan to connect a single high voltage cable from a shoreside power source to the vessel's bow thruster circuit. The bow thruster is driven by a high-voltage electrical motor. The motor is connected to the rest of the vessel?s low-voltage power system through a high-voltage cable and transformer. When the shoreside power source is connected to this circuit in the bow, the electricity can be back fed through the cable and transformer to the vessel?s main switchboard to power the entire ship.

APL says that by using the high-voltage circuit, the vessel-to-shore connection can be made with one 3-inch diameter cable instead of 10 cables, as in other cold-ironing designs. This, APL claims, reduces the cost and complexity of making the connection each time the vessel is docked. In addition, it says, by using the bow thruster transformer, there's no need to install a costly additional transformer to facilitate cold-ironing.

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