Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, (‘K’ Line) and Electric Power Development Co (J-Power) have decided to install the Seawing automated kite system using wind power, on ‘Corona Citrus’, an 88,000 dwt special coal carrier for J-Power.
Completed in 2019, Corona Citrus is equipped with ‘green’ technology including a ballast water treatment system for protecting marine ecosystems and a SOx scrubber, which eliminates sulphur oxides in exhaust gas from its engine, so as to comply with the regulations on SOx emissions that came into effect globally in January 2020.
The newly installed Seawing is expected to reduce CO2 emissions from the ship by at least 20%. Thus, it is one of main ‘K’ Line’s initiatives to achieve its GHG reduction target.
The vessel is 229.9m long, and 49,888 gt. The Seawing system combines expertise from aviation and maritime technologies, which enable significant progress of propulsion assistance in shipping. The kite can be deployed and stored automatically with simple switching operations. The system collects and analyses weather data and marine data on a real-time basis and uses the information to optimise its performance and secure maximum safety.
