Air Lubrication – Reduced Fuel Consumption and Compliance Costs

Air Lubrication offers commercial vessels a viable way to increase performance with respect to carbon emissions and operating costs, it is becoming an established option for vessels looking to increase competitiveness and CII performance and reduce emissions compliance costs. The Minke Marine Air Lubrication System offers the benefits of Air Lubrication with minimum installation burden and fractional Capex and Opex.

Contemporary Air Lubrication:

The principle of a flat-bottomed vessel using a layer of air introduced under the hull to reduce drag and improve performance is well established. There are different ways to achieve Air Lubication, they provide different gross and net performance improvements. Those improvements will vary between vessel types, their draft, speed and even the weather or type of water being navigated. Universal performance expectations for Air Lubrication systems are far from being established. What is established is that Air Lubrication systems installed on a commercial vessel are expensive and come with a high installation burden, and they use compressors, lots of compressors.

Why is Minke Better? No Compressors:

The Minke Marine ALS is specifically designed to reduce installation burden by using as much of the vessel’s existing hardware as possible. New hardware is mostly simple, solid-state equipment. It is designed to use as little power as possible and does not use compressors. Discharge of a thick layer of very small air bubbles provides the best bubble size for efficient friction reduction with minimum hull penetration(s). These features lead to a fractional Capex (20-25% purchase and installation) as well as lower Opex compared to conventional ASL.

The additional benefits of reduced underwater radiated noise (URN) and reduced hull fouling will also be experienced by a vessel using the Minke Marine ALS.e complex). Minke’s 6–24-month ROI on turnkey purchase and installation stands out in the field and makes it a compelling option to help owners improve performance and comply with regulations.