By RYO IKEDA/ Staff Writer
October 29, 2022 at 07:30 JST
The Shofu Maru, a coal carrier equipped with the more than 50-meter-tall Wind Challenger hard sail at the bow (Provided by Tohoku Electric Power Co.)
The world’s first coal carrier equipped with a hard sail has set sail carrying with it the goal of reducing the greenhouse gases it discharges.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. and Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. linked up to install the wing-shaped Wind Challenger sail on the large carrier, which sailed on Oct. 7.
“We have set a goal of achieving carbon neutrality, and we want to contribute to realizing a decarbonized society,” said a Tohoku Electric Power representative.
Utilizing Noshiro Port in Noshiro, Akita Prefecture, as its home port, the Shofu Maru will transport coal and other cargoes mainly from Australia, Indonesia and the North American West Coast.
Thanks to the Wind Challenger, the coal carrier can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 5 percent on a Japan-Australia voyage and about 8 percent on a route between Japan and the North American West Coast, according to the companies.
With a maximum height of about 53 meters and a width of about 15 meters, the sail is as tall as a 20-story building.
The sail can detect the speed and direction of the wind via sensors attached on the axle and at the tip to capture wind energy and reduce the ship's fuel consumption of heavy oil.
Made of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP), the sail is officially called the “Hard Sail Wind Power Propulsion System.”
Because FRP is also used for windmill blades, the sail is light and durable. It can withstand an average wind speed of 180 kph and maximum instantaneous wind gusts of 252 kph.
The sail can even be used during the largest-class typhoon, which is categorized as “fierce” with a maximum wind speed of at least 194 kph.
The vessel's name was partly derived from its massive sail.
While “sho” means “pine” and “fu” stands for “wind” in Japanese, the Shofu Maru was inspired from one of Japan’s largest black pine groves in Noshiro called “Kaze no Matsubara.”
The suffix “-maru” is usually affixed to the names of ships in Japan.
The 235-meter-long, 43-meter-wide coal carrier was built at the Oshima Shipbuilding Co.’s Oshima Shipyard in Saikai, Nagasaki Prefecture.
It can carry about 100,000 tons of cargo in bulk.
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