International Conferences

Here is a so-called "white paper" for the Interspill International Conference an the Fourth IMO R&D Forum held in Marseille, France, in May 2009. It was recognized by the joint committee of the conference and the forum, that the significant growth observed in maritime shipping of chemical items and the relevant industry and state obligations resulted in the increased attention of the public and industry professionals to the potential dangers of HNS spills.

The HNS stands for the Hazardous and Noxious Substances. The knowledge possessed by the industry today about the fate and potential effects of such spills is much less that the one for oil spills. Everyone involved in transportation of subject cargoes shall be fully aware of all potentially devastating consequences of the spills to the marine environment.

The content of the present white paper has been compiled by the recognized experts of the ITOPF organization and will be very useful for the people engaged in the associated activities. The ultimate intent of the document is to address the most important concerns and key issues related to the HNS spills in comparison to the oil spills, and also to provide a good basis for stimulating open discussion on this matter.

The document published by the World Maritime University, or WMU, and presents a dissertation devoted to the reduction of NOx emission from the shipboard diesel engine, in connection with the provisions of MARPOL Annex VI.

The sixth annex to the main convention on marine pollution is dealing with a broad range of air pollution prevention and control aspects including various regulations relating to the HCFCs, halons and other substances capable of depleting the ozone as well as SOx and NOx, VOCs, standing for the volatile organic compounds, incineration of garbage on board ships, and quality of the fuel oil - but the content of the annex is mainly focusing on NOx reduction.

The formation of the nitrogen oxides is normally built up as a result of the reaction between oxygen and nitrogen during the combustion, or by the reaction between the oxygen contained in the combustion air and hydrocarbon in the exhaust gas; the third way is the reaction between then nitrogen bindings in the fuel oils.

They are referred to as thermal NOx, prompt NOx and fuel NOX respectively. Note that the first one is considered decisive for the total NOx emission and it is the intent of all methods to reduce this component...

All of the aircraft carriers serving the United States Navy are nuclear-powered. However, this does not relate to the other surface vessels of the Navy fleet. And this is why and where the need for this study appeared – the interest was expressed by the Congress in wider use of the nuclear power on the surface ships. This publication contains the results of the study performed to check the possible design options.

The authors have compared various options to get full understanding of the advantages that nuclear vessels have over the conventionally powered vessels in terms of operational presence and time required to get to the area of operation located far away. The booklet starts with some background information followed by the chapter where the potential issues for the Congress are explained including such important factors as costs, training of the crew, operational effectiveness and potential environmental impact.

The legislative activities have been addressed in two separate chapters covering the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Defense Authorization Acts. Two data tables supplement the main text of the report and provide some additional information needed to have a full picture of the problem.

This white paper document is devoted solely to the autonomous ships considered future of the shipbuilding industry. The authors have tried to predict whether these vessels will be efficient enough to compete with the conventional vessels. The content of this booklet presents the results of the discussions and main takeaways of the roundtable meeting of the recognized industry specialists.

The volume itself is of quite introductory nature and gives readers the very basic insight to the autonomous vessels plus some information about the FutureNautics project. Today, the whole mood of the shipping industry is changing with the subject of ship automation and autonomy. Even though this industry is considered very conservative compared to the others and noting that the changes in the maritime shipping normally take place slow, the matter touched inn the pages of this booklet is very promising and has attracted the attention at top levels.

The publication will be helpful to the people willing to be at the edge of the technological advances in the industry. Since this area is fairly new, there are not too many books and other publications readily available today on this subject. You may wish to have a look into the title “Advances in Unmanned Marine Vehicles” as well as the “Further Advances…”.

The present excellent collection of documents has been made of the selected papers and presentations of the  IMO-WMU Global R&D Forum relating to the Emerging BWM Systems held some years back in Sweden. Nowadays, the great demand is there within the maritime industry for the development of the environmentally-friendly and also efficient BWM systems.

Taking this demand into account, the today's technological community has been dealing with the active developing of the various BWM systems to be able to cater to the emerging market of the ballast water technology, The systems in question have to undergo various applicable approval processes including the testing as per the  established testing procedures, in compliance with the requirements of the BWM Convention plus the Guidelines. While several systems are currently under development or approval process, testing among the BWM system TF, i.e. test facilities worldwide shows the gaps in the harmonization and methodology.

This has significantly contributed to the confusion and lack of confidence among the people involved in the development of the subject systems, and also among the ship owners. Therefore, it is really imperative that the end-users of the BWM systems have enough confidence that consistent and reliable testing methodologies are applied.

Here are the proceedings of the RINA-hosted international conference held in 2008 and dedicated to the operation and design of the ships transporting liquid petroleum gas. The papers selected for this publication cover design and operation of such ships, associated environmental risks together with the compliance for operation within inland waters. response of vessels to severe underwater shocks, market update, analysis of the supply-demand balance of the world liquid petroleum gas market and opportunities opening in the age of growing supply, fatigue assessment, supervision and professional training provided to the newbuilding site teams, various structural aspects of cargo tank design/construction, studies on support arrangement of cargo tanks, reliquefaction of the LPG cargo including design and operation of plants, etc.

The high prices for LPG slow the demand growth in many markets. Indian and Chinese import levels stopped their growth. At the same time, high energy costs stimulate the oil and gas projects and this would definitely bring about higher production of the LPG. Note that production in the Middle East region is ramping up, being driven by high crude oil production and new LNG-related projects. In the future, the LPG market is expected to be much more supply-driven...

This publication contains all official reports issued by IPIECA organization on the oil spill incidents. It will be of interest not only to the people directly from the maritime shipping industry but also to the people working in or interested in the field of ecology and environment protections. The publication will provide them with a full overview of the major issues that could be referenced in preparation for the oil spills and in response to them at sea.

The main idea of the compilers of this document was to prepare a summary report that would be used by the people all around the world with the content being equally beneficial to everyone. There are total of seventeen separate oil spill reports included in the volume; in all of them particular emphasis was made on the biological impacts that the spills had. Some of the reports were prepared in close collaboration with the IMO and ITOPF.

The series itself focuses on the major aspects of the preparedness and response and we all shall recognized the utmost importance of being duly concentrated on the spill prevention at all times, knowing the seriousness of the consequences. The compact but informative guidance to oil spill compensation has also been included in the volume.

Here are some fragments of the opening speech... On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee of the 9th International Stability Workshop, I warmly welcome all the participants of the workshop to Hamburg. The workshop is being organized by Germanischer Lloyd, the well known and world respected classification society, with the support of the ISC (International Standing Committee) of the International Ship Stability Conference.

Former Stability Workshops have contributed greatly to the advancement of scientific treatment of ship safety in all its forms. The main declared aim of this workshop is to promote a full exchange of ideas, techniques, methodologies and best practice by providing a ground for the maritime profession to meet and discuss the stability of vessels and ocean vehicles, seeking ways for improving maritime safety. We would also like to thank our sponsor BMVBS, the German Ministry of Transport for their support. In addition to that, we would like to thank all the presenters, authors and participants, from all continents, for their contributions to this workshop.

Though this conference itself was held nearly ten years ago, the materials that are presented in this compilation shall still be considered actual and their importance is critically high to anyone who are interested in the developments in the field of assessment and control of the ship stability.