Sustaina Blue

Aiming for a sustainable future for marine transportation,
Nabtesco promotes technological innovation to solve labor and greenhouse gas challenges

Large ships sail around the world carrying a large amount of goods and people. In order to optimize the transportation of large ships, a variety of efforts are required, including not only safe navigation, but also labor savings, fuel efficiency, and environmental impact reduction.
With social issues, such as the shrinking workforce and the expansion of greenhouse gases increase, Nabtesco is aiming for a sustainable future for marine transportation by pursuing new technologies, including autonomous navigation and AI.

Two megatrends that will have a major impact on the future shipping market

人

Demographic changes > Decrease in working population

2050: One in six
people (16%) of the world’s population will be 65 years old or over

  • – Aging of seafarers and shortage of young seafarers are noticeable in coastal shipping
  • – Constantly harsh working environment
  • – Keywords are “digitization and automation”
CO2

Climate change > Greenhouse gas expansion

Abnormal situation in Greenland:
up to 11 billion tons of ice melt each day

  • – Countermeasures against global warming are an obvious social issue
  • – Reducing environmental impact is a corporate social responsibility and contribution to SDGs is required
  • – The key phrase is “clean energy”

Technological innovation for a sustainable future provided by Nabtesco

Labor Saving

  • Autonomous Navigation
  • Remote Monitoring

Fuel Saving

  • AI
  • Optimal Route Planning System

GHG Reduction

  • Alternative Fuel
  • Propulsion Source

Nabtesco aims to solve social issues of a declining working population and global warming by reducing GHG emissions. It will do this by labor saving, achieved through autonomous navigation and remote monitoring, fuel saving through optimal route planning systems using AI, and utilizing alternative fuels/propulsion sources.


For fuel saving, the following technologies are under development: Energy management that optimizes the necessary power and propulsion, optimal route/operation monitoring linked coupled with control systems, and optimization of hull motion under different sea conditions. For alternative propulsion sources, we will develop integrated ECUs for each propulsion device, with a particular focus on hybrid and electric propulsion, which areis expected to advance significantly in the future for coastal shipping. For autonomous ships, Wwe would like to solve the new challenges of autonomous ships by promoting the following: Autonomous ships that support navigators, autonomous engine ships aiming for self-recovery of engines that supports engineers, optimization of maintenance using engine condition monitoring and CBM.


Rather than tackling these technologies alone, we will promote innovation and find innovative solutions by utilizing our core technology and collaborating with partner companies.

Please see Technology Development for details