What is a Green Ship?

any sea going vessel that contributes towards improving the present environmental condition in some way or the other. The word “green" in “Green Ship" signifies the green cover of the earth, which is unfortunately reducing as a result of the increase of human intervention in environmental activities.

Maritime industry is one of the greatest contributors of the green house effect, a phenomenon that has drastically affected the earth’s natural ecosystem. Thus, as an effort to reduce carbon emissions coming from the maritime industry and also to support the world movement towards eradicating the green house effect, many shipyards around the world have started inculcating special methods and equipments in their ships, which not only helps in minimizing the carbon foot prints but also in increasing the ships efficiency. These environmentally- friendly ships are known as “Green Ships."

Green Ship Technology

The greatest contributor of environmental pollution on a ship is the ship’s engine room. The diesel engines and other machinery present in the engine room utilize fuel for their working and release carbon dioxide and other poisonous gases in return. The key to reduce this poisonous emission is to improve the design of these machines and also of the ship. The ships should be designed in such a way that it poses least threat to the environment. Thus, better the design, greener is the ship.

A greener and efficiently designed ship can be achieved by

· Minimizing the consumption of materials during ship building.

· Reducing the usage of energy and toxic materials during ship manufacturing process.

· Using efficient machinery

· Improving the overall ship design

· Reusing of ship’s parts and accessories during ship maintenance.

Hull design and the kind of materials used in making a ship play a very important role towards the overall efficiency of the ship. For e.g., optimization of hull lines of the ship increases the speed of the ship, saves fuel and also improves the economic efficiency.