NYK’s Air-Lubrication System Recognized at 2013 Eco-Products Awards

At the 2013 Eco-Products Awards, Japan’s Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Award, one of the highest awards in the eco-services category, was presented jointly to Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, the Monohakobi Technology Institute, and Oshima Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. in recognition of the NYK Group’s use of an energy-saving air-lubrication system on its vessels.

This award was established in 2004 to put great products and services (eco-products) into further practical use in Japan. The recognition aims to support the providers of eco-products by giving attention to those that reduce environmental burdens.

The awarded air-lubrication system effectively reduces CO2 emissions by use of bubbles generated by air released from the bottom of the vessel to lessen the frictional resistance between a vessel’s bottom and the seawater. Moreover, in 2010 a new air-lubrication system that features a blower that provides air to the vessel bottom, thus reducing friction between the vessel bottom and the sea, was co-developed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and installed on two NYK Group module carriers. A system using the vessel’s scavenging air was additionally developed and installed on a new coal carrier at Oshima Shipbuilding in 2012, thus demonstrating the viability of a system for large vessels having deep drafts. In fact, a CO2 reduction of about 4 percent during sea passages at deep drafts, and about 8 percent at shallow drafts, has been confirmed.

The awards ceremony will be held in Tokyo on December 12 at Eco-Products 2013, the largest environmental exhibition in Japan.

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NYK, November 28, 2013