SEVERAL leading shipping industry entities have joined the new MIT Maritime Consortium in a new effort to develop groundbreaking technologies that will enhance efficiency and reduce emissions, helping the industry meet its decarbonisation goals.

The consortium’s founding members are the ABS, Greece-based Capital Clean Energy Carriers and HD Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering.

“Innovation” members of the new initiative are Foresight Group, Navios Maritime Partners, Singapore Maritime Institute and Dorian LPG.

On the academic side, the consortium brings together various MIT hubs, including its Center for Ocean Engineering, the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), the departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“This consortium brings a powerful collection of significant companies that, together, has the potential to be a global shipping shaper in itself,” said ABS chief executive Christopher Wiernicki.

“The ability to harness the members’ experience and know-how, along with MIT’s technology reach, creates real jet fuel to drive progress,” he added. 

Wiernicki said the consortium intended to address “key barriers, bottlenecks, and knowledge gaps in the emissions challenge”, but would also look to assist development of “novel technology and policy innovation”.

CCEC said it hoped “to play a pivotal role in providing operational expertise and real-world insights” from its diverse fleet, which includes various vessel types and technologies.

“We firmly believe that the newly founded Maritime Consortium will drive transformative change, fostering innovation in maritime practices, strengthening resilience against challenges, and paving the way for a more sustainable future,” said CCEC chief executive Jerry Kalogiratos.

“This is a timely collaboration with key stakeholders from the maritime industry with a very bold and interdisciplinary research agenda that will establish new technologies and evidence-based standards,” said Themis Sapsis, director of the Center for Ocean Engineering, who will co-lead the consortium together with IDSS director Fotini Christia.

It aimed to “bring the best from MIT in key areas for commercial shipping, such as nuclear technology for commercial settings, autonomous operation and AI methods, improved hydrodynamics and ship design, cybersecurity, and manufacturing”.

According to the consortium, it will launch “multiple research projects designed to tackle challenges from a variety of angles, all united by cutting-edge data analysis and computation techniques”.

On its new website, the consortium says researchers looking into nuclear power for commercial shipping will evaluate reactor technologies for both ship conversion and new ship designs, radiation shielding for maritime propulsion reactors, safety analysis, regulations and the business model.

Other key areas will include the economic and environmental feasibility of alternative fuels, new data-driven algorithms and rigorous evaluation criteria for autonomous platforms, and 3D printing technologies for onboard manufacturing of spare parts.