Original subtitles

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Since the invention of the wheel,

humans have pushed the boundaries

and possibilities to go faster, higher,

and deeper than ever before.

The engineering evolution of cars, ships, planes, trains,

submersibles and rockets has been a monumental journey

of inspiration, innovation, sometimes failure, and success.

So how did we get to where we are now

and where are we going next?

[upbeat music]

Transporting massive loads of crucial cargo

around the globe every day,

ships are essential to our way of life.

- The world is increasingly a global market

and shipping has become critical to that.

- [Narrator] From Food, to cars, to your smartphone,

chances are it traveled across the sea on board a ship.

- Ships are an integral part of our global economy,

moving trillions of dollars of goods and resources.

- [Narrator] But engineering massive vessels

to withstand the rough open seas

without sinking is no easy task.

- When you break it down,

buoyancy is just the balance of forces

between the water and the gravity

that's trying to pull that ship down.

- [Narrator] And with strict new environmental regulations

coming into effect in the next few decades,

the race is on to design, innovate,

and build the future generations of ships.

Due to set sail in just a few years

is a true masterpiece of modern engineering.

Combining stunning design with cutting edge technology,

the Swedish Oceanbird

is one of the most high tech ship designs of our time.

With four towering 80 meter high rigid sails

that look more like sleek aircraft wings,

this concept could fuel the future

of wind powered cargo ships.

- There's a lot of different ways

to use wind power to move objects.

We think of old galleons with their big square sails

or modern racing sailboats with spinnakers

that allow you to absorb even more wind.

- [Narrator] The Oceanbird sails can extend telescopically

to almost 80 meters and rotate 360 degrees

to harness the power of the cross winds.

They can also retract to allow passage into smaller harbors.

The project aims to build a sailing vessel

that can transport 7,000 cars across the Atlantic

with 90% fewer emissions

than a conventional ship running on heavy crude oil.

Tests on a scale model are already being carried out,

and similar concepts

are perfecting mechanical sail technology

in a different way.

- More and more when we're thinking

about very large cargo ships,

we're thinking about rotor sales,

and rotor sales are a little bit different.

They don't really look like a conventional sail.

- [Narrator] London-based company

Anemoi Marine is focused on sail technology,

originally known as Flettner rotors.

These modern mechanical sails consist of tall cylinders

that harness the renewable power of the wind

to propel ships.

This additional thrust

significantly reduces fuel consumption

and reduces pollutant emissions into the atmosphere.

These innovations honor a propulsion method

used by the very first seafaring pioneers, wind.

- On the an Anemoi ship,

you don't see sails flapping in the wind,

but you see these huge rotating columns

and what's happening is very similar

to how a plane generates lift.

So you've got air that is being forced around one side

of the column faster than on the other side,

and that's exactly how planes use lift.

But in this case,

what they're doing is rather than directing

that force upward,

they're using it to direct the force forward

propelling the ship.

- [Narrator] The transporting of goods by boat

can be traced back to the time of the pharaohs.

- When we look back at the the history of cargo vessels,

I mean we go back to thousands of years ago in Egypt

where vessels were really simple road or sail driven boats

that move small amounts of goods up and down rivers,

- [Narrator] The first known record of boats

dates back to ancient Egypt around 4,000 BCE.

At this time, boats relied on either wind power,

human powered mechanisms like rowing with oars,

or a combination of both for propulsion.

To harness the wind's force,

Egyptian sailors attached woven reeds to their ships.

They were able to utilize wind power effectively

on the Nile,

but when it came to transitioning into the open seas,

they recognized the need for additional power

which led to the use of longer rowboats.

Over time, as people gained a better understanding

of wind patterns and improved their technical knowledge,

boat designs became more sophisticated and efficient.

The move to the pure sailing ship came with small

but steadily increasing technical innovations

to allow ships to sail with the wind behind them.

But increasingly, the early pioneers

realized with some modifications

that they could power the ship

from whichever direction the wind was coming from.

Sails were designed to pivot on the mast,

enabling them to capture the wind from different angles.

- So we started designing sails that were shaped

and designed to allow them to act as air foils

actually to work kind of like airplane wings,

which allow us to move upwind and tack upwind

so we can get back to where we started from.

- [Narrator] Sails changed from a large square canvas

suspended from a single yard

to complex arrangements intended

to pivot on the mast depending on the direction of the wind.

For centuries, the seven seas were full

of these glorious sailing ships,

transporting both goods and passengers from port to port.

Much more than the picturesque relics of the past,

those sailing ships are making a comeback.

Now, wind assisted propulsion

is experiencing its renaissance

as the global push towards green energy is on the rise

and companies are turning to wind power

to transport cargo, but with a twist.

- So rotor sales are very different than conventional sales.

Conventional sail often made of cloth hung from rigging,

rotor sales are large cylinders that rotate.

- [Narrator] But this seemingly new innovation

can be traced back over 100 years to a German aviation

and marine engineer known for his pioneering work

in rotor ship technology and aerodynamics.

- Anton Federer in the early 1900s identified this effect

and shortly thereafter,

the first rotor sales were developed.

- In 1925, Freighter constructed his first rotor ship,

the Buckau,

which demonstrated the feasibility of his invention.

The Buckau was a converted cargo ship

that employed two large rotating cylinders

to harness the wind's force for propulsion.

Its twin rotor system measured 15 meters in height

and three meters in diameter,

drawing 37 kilowatts of power to rotate the rotor sails.

The Buckau's maiden voyage was in 1925

and later she sailed to the Americas.

While the rotor ship showed promise in certain conditions,

unfortunately, it couldn't compete

with faster engine powered ships.

- They never really became commercialized

because at that point in time,

diesel fuel was relatively inexpensive.

Combustion engines were relatively inexpensive.

Now with the need to become more energy efficient

to reduce carbon emissions,

we're starting to look at rotor sails again

because they're simple, they're effective,

and they can reduce those CO2 emissions.

- [Narrator] Currently more than 20 commercial cargo ships

are already using wind assist technology

retrofitting onto existing vessels.

And this green energy solution is helping propel

the shipping industry forward.

The sale technology we're seeing today

is like a modern twist on the Flettner rotor,

which in turn draws its principles

from what's known as the Magnus effect.

The Magnus effect was first studied by the German physicist,

Gustav Magnus when he observed that a spinning body

would deflect off of a straight path.

When an object spins,

it creates a difference in air pressure on its two sides.

The side moving in the same direction as the spin

has a lower pressure while the side moving opposite

to the spin has higher pressure.

For example, in sports like soccer or baseball,

when a player kicks or throws a spinning ball,

the Magnus effect causes the ball to curve in the air.

This effect is also used

in various engineering applications,

such as the design of some types of aircraft wings

or helicopter rotors.

But while wind power has proven its effectiveness,

it is not the only solution needed.

In 2018, the International Maritime Organization,

a regulatory arm of the United Nations,

set a goal of cutting international

shipping carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2050

compared to 2008 levels.

So engineers and designers are looking at the potential

of more greener fuels.

Today, marine shipping contributes

about 1 billion metric tons of carbon emissions

into the atmosphere each year.

With commercial aviation contributing another billion

and cars tipping the scale at over 3 billion metric tons.

This massive challenge

that the global shipping industry must tackle

in the coming decades can't be understated,

and we're seeing it present itself in areas

where innovators are choosing to focus their efforts.

Today, the biggest names in shipping

are exploring different sources of fuel

to power their vessels.

One potential solution lies in nuclear power,

a fuel that the military has relied on for decades.

The USS Gerald R. Ford first deployed on October 4th, 2022

is the US Navy's latest and greatest class

of aircraft carrier, fueled entirely by nuclear energy.

- The nuclear power system on the USS Gerald R. Ford

is actually strong enough to power

the entire military aircraft carrier for 25 years.

- [Narrator] This is also the US Navy's

first new aircraft carrier design in over 40 years,

boasting tons of first class technology.

This formidable ship features

an electromagnetic aircraft launch system

replacing the traditional steam catapult

and paving the way for innovation

in manned and unmanned aircraft.

- Large ships that use nuclear power

are actually harnessing nuclear reactions to heat up steam

to really high temperatures,

and they use that steam to power the ship.

- [Narrator] To power the reactors,

atoms in the nuclear reactor split,

which releases energy as heat.

This heat is used to create high pressure steam

turning propulsion turbines that turn the propeller.

As the steam cools and condenses back into water,

water is directed back through the system

and the process starts again.

- Any technology has issues of safety

that have to be addressed and that's certainly true

of nuclear technology

and it doesn't matter what the size is,

so you have to engineer the technology to make sure

that it is safe as it could possibly be.

- [Narrator] The reason nuclear propulsion is used only

in very specific types of ships

is that the technology is currently expensive to install

and maintain.

But its advantages include a vast increase in range

and a huge reduction in refueling needs,

making it more practical for remote harsh environments

and very specific jobs.

Nuclear energy also powers some of the toughest ships

in the ocean, including icebreakers,

traversing arctic waterways.

Nuclear powered icebreakers are much more powerful

than their diesel powered counterparts.

- Icebreakers are really interesting vessels

'cause they do things that other vessels don't do.

Basically to break the ice,

the propulsion system pushes the icebreaker

up onto the surface of the sheet of ice

and then uses the weight of the icebreaker

to break down through the ice.

- The reactor can provide power up to 60 megawatts,

which is enough to get through two and a half

to three meter thick ice at speeds up to 10 knots

or 19 kilometers per hour.

The icebreakers only need to be refueled once every five

to seven years.

The world's first nuclear powered icebreaker

was commissioned in the late 1950s

leading to a series of larger and more powerful vessels.

In July, 1971, construction began

on the world's largest nuclear icebreaker

of its time, the Arctica.

The Arctica was used for escorting merchant ships

and expeditions to the most extreme corners of the world

reaching the North Pole in 1977.

This success set the stage for five more to follow.

Equipped with helicopters, zodiac boats

and radio and satellite communications,

these ships battled some

of the harshest conditions on earth.

- So it takes an immense amount of power and energy

to push this ship weighing thousands of tons

up onto the surface of the ice so that it can break the ice.

So we need a very powerful power plant.

- [Narrator] Though nuclear technology has been used

for powering naval ships and submarines

for at least seven decades,

there are some glaring disadvantages.

Nuclear power and shipping still faces issues of price,

regulations and the question of nuclear waste disposal.

In practical use, there are highly complex systems

that require specialized personnel to operate and maintain.

Cost considerations are paramount in the shipping industry

and as we transition to the next generation of ships,

the significant reduction in the need for personnel

will result in substantial cost savings.

Some of the most advanced ships of today

are operating without any crew on board at all.

- The Yara Birkeland is being built

as the world's first electric, fully autonomous ship.

The Yara Birkeland is able to dock itself autonomously.

It has arms that it can use to moor and unmoor itself,

and it's got a series of arms that it can use for loading

and unloading goods from the dock onto its ship

or from the ship back onto a dock.

- [Narrator] Equipped with cameras inside and out,

the AI systems onboard detect, identify,

and react to its surroundings.

Thanks to its automatic mooring system,

birthing and unbirthing will be done

without any human intervention.

In 2022, another autonomous commercial container ship

successfully executed a near 804 kilometer voyage

in the congested waters of Tokyo Bay.

The 750 gross ton vessel

traversed without human intervention for 99% of the trip.

This incredible milestone was achieved

using artificial intelligence,

smoothly navigating the potential collision hazards

around these busy waters with the autonomous technology.

- The potential benefit of using autonomous ships

could be far better than even using autonomous cars.

If we think about the amount of ships on the water,

there's about 55,000 merchant ships per day,

but the amount of space between the ships

is far less likely to result in a collision

than if all the vehicles on earth were autonomously driven.

So you have a bit more of a safety factor

if we were to have autonomous ships versus autonomous cars.

That means that we can again have incremental gains.

If we have an autonomous ship,

having it be able to drive itself

means you can have kind of a reduced crew.

There's still the need to have people on board,

but you can definitely have a reduced crew, reduced hours,

that the ship is being monitored

when it is say, out in the open ocean.

There's a higher probability that we can instrument

the ships so that it can see and communicate

to other ships nearby,

and there would be a far greater amount of time

and distance between ships to prevent collisions.

- [Narrator] Reducing human error with autonomous systems

can help improve safety, resolve congestion issues,

and reduce carbon emissions through increased efficiency.

Human error is a historically common contributor

to marine accidents,

some of which have resulted in costly disruptions

to global shipping.

Nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall,

the Ever Given is one of the largest container ships

ever built.

In 2021, this behemoth famously got stuck in the Suez Canal

for a full six days, grinding worldwide shipping to a halt

and freezing nearly $10 billion in trade per day.

- The Ever Given was transiting the Suez Canal

when on a day with high winds it ran aground.

And basically between the pilots not paying attention

and not carefully controlling the ship,

the ship got pushed off course

and got too close to the edge of the canal.

Once it got close to the edge of the canal,

it got pushed further ashore and ran aground.

And when a ship runs a ground,

because of all the momentum that's in the ship

it gets pushed up.

And when it gets pushed up and out of the water

and rises up, we all of a sudden have this huge mass

of the ship, potentially thousands of tons of weight

resting on the bottom.

- [Narrator] Mere months after the Ever Given fiasco,

an ambitious project began to expand the Suez Canal

to increase its capacity by six ships.

- The Suez Canal actually is a very old canal.

It was actually dug thousands of years ago

to allow small ships to move between the Red Sea

and Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.

This is the historic trade route of goods from Asia

into Europe.

- [Narrator] This effectively reduced their journey

by several months,

by bypassing a route around the Cape of Good Hope

located at the southern tip of Africa.

Written evidence shows that the Suez Canal

was excavated prior to 2000 BCE, and

remains one of the world's busiest shipping routes today.

The engineering and construction of canals

all over the world has had a significant impact

on shipping roots throughout history.

Shipping canals provide navigational shortcuts

by connecting large bodies of water

crucial to the shipping industry today.

The Panama Canal stretches 80 kilometers long

across the Isthmus of Panama and Central America,

allowing vessels to travel between the Pacific

and Atlantic Oceans

and avoid the long voyage around South America.

- At the time the Panama Canal was created,

it was estimated that a ship

could take from five to six months

to go around the whole of South America.

- [Narrator] These shorter distances save time

and operating costs for vessels.

As a result of the quicker transits,

ships can be used for additional sailings per year,

meaning more frequent shipping schedules

with the capacity of more goods

being traded on a global scale.

Today, over 100,000 ships make trips

around the world every day.

Our way of life depends on shipping

and the incredible evolution this industry has gone through.

- As society has evolved, time has really changed.

It used to be a hundred years ago, not that long ago,

that it took a month to get from Europe to North America.

Then we got steamships and it took two weeks.

- [Narrator] The advent of steam engines

was really the the beginning of globalization.

Goods can travel from country to country,

reaching markets they could never have accessed before.

- With the development of the steam engine,

we were able to institute a more reliable

form of propulsion on ships.

This meant more reliable power.

We could control where we were going more accurately

and we could carry heavier loads.

- [Narrator] The first commercial success was the Claremont,

the paddle wheel steamship developed by Robert Fulton,

an inventor and engineer in the US.

In 1907, the Claremont began transporting passengers

on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany.

Engines drove the two side paddle wheels,

each of which were four and a half meters in diameter.

- Ships that were powered by steam

would actually turn a big paddle wheel

which provided the propulsion for the vessel.

That was excellent in that it provided a strong,

reliable source of power,

but the next challenge they had to overcome

was how to steer this vessel

when it had just one big directional rotor.

- [Narrator] Early steamships relied mostly on coal

to heat water in a large boiler to create steam.

- In this engine, we use coal to create heat.

Heat boils water.

Water produces high pressure steam.

The steam is allowed to flow into a cylinder

with a piston in it.

The steam expands pushing on the cylinder,

the cylinder's attached to a shaft.

That shaft is connected eccentrically to a wheel,

causing the wheel to turn

as the shaft moves in and out with the piston.

- [Narrator] This required massive boilers

in the center of the hall

and a huge amount of coal

rendering the ships unsuitable to transport cargo.

- Steam engines are kind of limited

in their maximum power output.

As you try to make them more and more powerful,

they get heavier and heavier.

You need to carry more and more water with you.

You need to carry more and more coal with you.

They just don't work for going really, really fast.

- [Narrator] In the era of paddle wheels,

ships were slow, cumbersome, and at the mercy of the tides,

but a new invention would be a game changer

to literally propel ships faster with more control.

The screw propeller.

- The next big innovation in ship propulsion was propellers.

So rather than a big rotor that just pushed you straight,

a propeller could actually be varied

in its propulsion direction

to allow you to adapt to changing conditions in the water.

- Screw propellers were much more maneuverable

and less vulnerable to damage,

allowing ships to dock at ports and harbors

that were previously inaccessible.

With improvements in marine steam engines

and the evolution from the paddle wheel

to the screw propeller,

ocean navigation by steamships

became gradually more possible,

and in 1819, the first steam ship crossed the Atlantic.

This ignited the global shipping trade,

transforming it into a multi-billion dollar industry

with ports all over the world.

- The steam engine was essential

to the industrial revolution,

was foundational in railway travel,

was experimental in the automobile industry,

and played a unique role in merchant shipping.

By adding a steam engine

and having reliable energy on board,

it grew the travel and trade routes available

across the ocean,

and therefore had an enormous role in increasing continental

and sort of global trade by way of the water.

- [Narrator] Today, one of the most important

global shipping hubs is the Port of Rotterdam,

hosting around 30,000 seagoing vessels

and 120,000 inland vessels each year.

Rotterdam boasts the world's most advanced container

terminal where a slew of robots load

and unload cargo at a breakneck pace.

In 2021, they achieved the highest container throughput

in its history, handling a whopping 15.3 million

standard boxes in a year.

Hightech GPS systems allow each individual container

to be tracked with precision

as it's being loaded on board the ship.

And thanks to state-of-the-art technology,

Rotterdam is on track to become the smartest port

in the world with access to real-time information

about weather and water conditions.

To kick off this industry leading initiative,

sensors spanning 42 kilometers were installed in 2019

between the city of Rotterdam and the North Sea.

These sensors will gather from multiple data streams

crucial for managing safety and traffic.

With this data, the port can predict the best time

for a ship to arrive or depart,

ensuring the maximum amount of cargo is loaded onboard.

- The transportation of goods on ships is so vital

to the global supply chain

that even a one day holdup along a ship's journey

can have a weeks long ramifications

for various supply chains all around the world.

- [Narrator] To make sure that global sailing

is as smooth as possible today,

all large vessels are equipped

with an automated identification system or AIS.

This technology allows seamless communication

between other vessels and their ports of call

to maximize smooth sailing.

AIS or automatic identification system is a technology

that relies on a blend of GPS-VHF radio communication

and an AIS transponder.

The transponder essentially acts as a broadcaster,

transmitting vital information about a ship.

This data includes details such as a ship's speed,

direction, its name, and where it hails from,

as well as its size and draft.

The transmission happens over VHF radio frequencies.

AIS has revolutionized the transportation industry,

improving cargo security, business operations,

and customer service.

- Prior to having this technology,

we had to physically be line of sight

gauging where we're going

and seeing if we can see ships off in the distance

that we needed to avoid.

- [Narrator] The development

of onboard vessel tracking systems

is a direct result of a devastating maritime event

in the late 1980s.

- One of the largest maritime disasters ever

was the Exxon Valdez.

The Exxon Valdez was a large oil vessel

that was bringing oil

from Alaska down to North American West coast.

While being piloted through narrow channels,

human error caused it to run aground.

When it ran aground, it released a huge amount of oil,

crude oil into a relatively pristine

West Coast marine environment,

and this was really a massive environmental disaster.

There were thousands and thousands of animals killed,

beaches all along the west coast of North America

were adversely affected by this heavy oil.

These are the kind of consequences we have

when marine disasters occur.

- [Narrator] 41 million liters of crude oil

gushed into the water

from the crippled vessel slashed hull.

At the time, this was the largest oil spill disaster

in US history.

In response to this devastating catastrophe,

the United States Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act

calling for the Coast Guard

to develop a vessel tracking system

for tankers entering Alaska.

- In the maritime environment,

there's always a risk of things going wrong.

There's icebergs, there's unexpected conditions,

there's rogue waves and huge storms.

So there's always the potential

for something that you can't anticipate happening.

So we spend a lot of time as engineers

trying to engineer ships

to deal with extremely adverse conditions.

- [Narrator] The new system had to be autonomous,

automatically communicating and indicating

a ship's location to other ships and to shore

without the risk of human error.

The Coast Guard decided on a system

that used VHF radio waves.

By the mid '90s, the international community

adopted a single system that could be used worldwide,

which is the AIS system in use today.

- Marine disasters have become rare and rare.

There's still huge events

and they have huge impacts on the world economy

and shipping, but they are getting rare and rarer

because of technology.

- [Narrator] Advances in technology have also paved the way

for a green revolution,

rethinking the fuels used in shipping operations.

For decades, heavy fuel oil or HFO

has been the king of marine fuels,

inexpensive and widely available.

HFO propelled a long period of robust growth

in international shipping.

Heavy fuel oil remains a dominant energy source

for many working ships on the water today.

- Diesel engines use heavy fuel oil and heavy fuel oil

is kind of the lowest quality oil we have.

It has a lot of contaminants in it, specifically sulfur.

So when we burn heavy fuel oil,

we produce SOX and that reacts with water

to form sulfuric acids.

So it's really a big problem for acid rain.

It's also very high-end carbon,

so it has a very large carbon footprint

and it's just generally dirty.

It really is smog and pollution producing.

- [Narrator] Commercial fishing,

offshore oil and gas vessels, dredgers and container ships

are all heavily dependent on HFO.

Beyond gritty working ships,

heavy fuel oil also powers plenty of passenger ships.

Many cruise ships today are utter leviathans weighing

in at over 200,000 gross tonnage with 16 decks

and capacity for over 5,000 passengers and 2000 crew.

When it's time to refuel, barges must come alongside these

beasts for bunkering, loading,

and distributing fuel among the ship's tanks.

- The transition from coal fuels to heavy fuel oils allowed

for ships to be developed

to be even bigger and even more powerful.

These were huge ships that represented kind

of the new way forward for marine transport.

- [Narrator] As we move forward into a greener era.

Vessels powered by heavy fuel oil are now being banned

from sailing through the ocean's most sensitive ecosystems.

In 2020, the United Nations International Maritime

Organization approved a ban on heavy fuel oils in Arctic

waters taking effect in July of 2024.

The ban aims to reduce the risk of HFO spills as the number

of ships sailing in the arctic continues to increase.

With the evolution of the marine industry,

alternatives are emerging that can be easily adapted

to power heavy fuel oil engines.

- When you get to a heavy fuel engines,

for example, diesel engines, right?

I can go to my friend in BC and put in a $3,000 converter

in the back and that person goes to every restaurant

and takes all the oil that they finished using the fry oil

that they're throwing out in garbage.

He collects all that, puts it in the converter,

and that's his fuel for the diesel engine.

You can do that because diesel engine lends itself

to that because it doesn't have a spark plug,

it doesn't need, it's not finicky,

it's a compression engine.

- Instead of using heavy fuel oils, there are situations

where these ships can use a a biofuel, which is any sort

of fuel derived from a biomass-like plants,

algae and things like that.

- [Narrator] Biofuels are also known as drop-in fuels,

meaning they can be used in existing ship infrastructure.

- The biggest advantage to biofuels

is that they are immediately usable without having to change

any engine components and that they are much cleaner burning

than traditional heavy fuel oils.

- Heavy fuel oils are very polluting where biofuels,

hopefully we can make them in an environmentally

sustainable way.

So a lot of biofuels that we think about traditionally

are made from regular commercial crops

like corn or soy or other materials.

- [Narrator] Biofuels represent one of the most advanced

and readily available alternatives

among zero emission fuel options.

The most commonly produced liquid biofuel is ethanol,

also known as ethyl alcohol.

Ethanol is created through the fermentation process

of starch or sugar.

In the United States, corn or grain serves

as the primary source for ethanol biofuel production.

This ethanol is typically blended with gasoline

resulting in a fuel called gasohol,

which contains 10% ethanol.

The second most common liquid biofuel is biodiesel,

which is primarily made from oily plants such as soybean

or oil palm, and to a lesser extent from other oily sources

such as waste, cooking fat from restaurant deep frying.

Biodiesel, which has found greater acceptance in Europe,

is commonly used in diesel engines and often blended

with petroleum diesel fuel at varying ratios.

While biodiesel is currently compatible with ship engines,

bioethanol on the other hand is not yet suitable

for these engines, but may become so in the future.

- This has a tremendous impact in this industry

because it's not just large companies operating vessels,

it can be sole proprietorship.

Making it as easy as possible to switch to a cleaner fuel

means that it's more likely to be adopted.

- Innovators will need to continue developing these fuels

before they can be fully implemented

into the shipping industry.

As with any brand new fuel source of its time.

Back in the 1870s, heavy fuel oils were beginning

to replace coal as a more efficient energy

source for powering ships.

Oil has a higher energy density than coal,

so more energy can be obtained from the same capacity,

which allows for a reduction in the size

of the fuel tank on board,

resulting in an expansion of cargo space.

It also meant a significant reduction in the number

of crew members required as it negated the need to load coal

and throw coal into the boiler.

In the early 19 hundreds and even more efficient way

to power ships began to surge in popularity.

The internal combustion engine. The development

of internal combustion led to the introduction

of marine diesel, which ships began to use

as their main source of propulsion.

They had significantly higher fuel efficiency compared

to the steam engine or steam turbine.

This higher fuel efficiency in part allowed for bigger

and better ships to be built,

revolutionizing the shipping industry.

But during this transitional time,

not everyone embraced this new technology.

Coal remained the fuel of choice for the white star line.

A shipping company boasting some of the biggest

passenger ships in the world.

- The Titanic and its sister ships.

Were part of a moment in history in ship building

when we're seeing large transatlantic vessels

in this particular case being used for passenger

as well as the movement of freight.

And so while the Titanic was one of the biggest,

it's also part of a moment in time when this type

of construction, this type of knowledge

and this role for ships is really at its height.

- [Narrator] The Titanic had three primary engines,

two of them reciprocating four cylinder engines,

and together they generated a total of 30,000 horsepower.

There was also a steam turbine that provided an additional

16,000 horsepower.

The Titanic was capable of reaching high speeds

for its time, allowing it to cruise

at around 22 to 24 knots.

The Titanic was part of a trio of ocean liners

known as the Olympic class,

which included the Olympic and the Britannic.

These ships were designed to be the largest

and most luxurious passenger vessels of their time.

One notable safety feature of these ships

was their double bottom, meaning it had two layers

of hull at its bottom for added strength and protection

against damage from underwater obstacles.

It also had watertight bulkhead compartments.

These compartments were equipped with electric watertight

doors that could be operated individually or all at once.

- These trips were supposed to be deemed as unsinkable,

and they got this name because of their hull design.

The hulls were designed so that they had, they were made up

of 15 individual watertight compartments that in the case

of impact, if one were breached, you could segment off

and narrow down where the water was leaking into the hull.

In the instance of the Titanic,

there was a fatal flaw in the design in that the reach

of the doors that segmented the compartments only reached

the water level that they were in.

So it was the obvious bypass

of the water going over the watertight containers.

The the containers themselves were indeed watertight,

but they were still open to the water outside of the hull.

- On April 14th, 1912,

Titanic struck a North Atlantic iceberg 20 minutes

before midnight slicing open the hull and flooding

the watertight compartments all located

on the lower section of the ship.

The unsinkable ship could reportedly stay afloat

if four of the compartments were breached.

But as the flooding burst through the fifth compartment,

Titanic began her descent to a watery grave.

In today's cruise ship designs,

watertight compartments extend up to the upper deck.

Engineering of modern day cruise ships have also evolved

dramatically in other ways.

- This accident represented one

of the greatest maritime tragedies

that we had ever experienced, and as terrible

as it is at discovering such a fatal flaw

in what was supposed to be an unsinkable system

ultimately led to further development and reinforcement

of such systems to keep people safe in the future.

This led to the development of a welded hull.

So when you're welding something together,

you're essentially making two pieces of metal,

one at the point where they join.

So it's a much more uniform joint method than riveting.

- [Narrator] Riveting is a very labor intensive method

of shipbuilding that involves piecing together metal plates.

This required two workers on either side,

one to push the rivet through the plate and the other two

hammer it into place, expanding the head

to fill a hole and waterproof the connection.

The Titanic's design used over 3 million rivets for its hull

and its upper deck structure,

which was not only massively labor intensive,

it was a much less reliable method than welding.

Welding replaced riveting

as the dominant method in World War II to speed up

and improve ship production,

creating near seamless joints that were watertight.

As technology progressed, different types

of welding methods began emerging over time,

making the hull construction process safer

and more secure than ever.

Today, ship builders are finding even more innovative ways

to push traditional ship design well beyond previous limits.

The technology of today is breaking barriers in the shipping

industry Using augmented reality,

ship builders now have the ability

to create the ultimate ships using digital software.

Maritimers can use the same technology

to inspect their vessels without having to consult a manual

- Augmented reality.

So when you can see the real objects

in a kind of simulated environment,

and you can get parameters,

you can get the values through the sensors

and you can see them all on one screen

so you don't have access to the real object,

but you can see the values collecting

or the parameters collecting from the sensors installed

on the real object.

- This is a revolutionary way to do maintenance

that saves time, money, and is better for the environment.

- So augmented reality is helping our inspectors

to evaluate the current situation with more confidence

and also they're connected to the internet

so they can get information very fast,

and it's a kind of assisted maintenance assisted inspection

that is providing this capability for our teams.

- [Narrator] Revolutionary changes

are also coming to ship design.

The world's largest and most high tech destroyer features

an inverted bow, the USS Zumwalt.

Entering active service in 2016, this class of navy ships

are designed with a unique angular shape

and special coatings, making them harder

to identify on enemy radar systems.

This cutting edge stealth technology allows the ships

to operate closer to shore

and carry out high stakes missions

with the reduced risk of detection.

This distinctive appearance is enhanced

by the hull which slopes inward above the waterline.

Known as a tumble home hull this feature allows the ship

to slice clean through waves,

optimizing speed and maneuverability.

Its modern integrated bridge eliminates the need

for traditional masks

and antennas contributing further

to the ship's sleek and streamlined look.

These cutting edge designs could be the future

of ship building.

- You can imagine the amount of energy it takes to keep

an oil tanker moving through the sea.

These are massive vessels with huge amounts of displacement,

so even a small percentage decrease in the friction

could have a significant impact on the amount of energy

that's needed to take a cargo

from one side of the world to the other.

- [Narrator] Instead of climbing over waves,

these bows pierce right through them.

This reduces the water spray

as the bow enters the water more softly

creating less backflow from the ship's bow.

This means a reduction in fuel consumption

and a smoother ride throughout rough seas.

The inverted bow is now being seen in commercial vessels

such as the Bourbon Orca used in the offshore oil

and gas industry.

This remarkable and innovative design greatly enhances

the ship's ability to handle rough seas.

Also, a reduction in noise and vibration,

which has become an increasing concern with the rise

in shipping traffic over the years,

ships produce underwater noise

through their propulsion systems and machinery.

A significant portion around 85% of this noise is linked

to a phenomenon known as cavitation.

This happens when a ship's propeller spins too fast

or handles too much load disrupting

the smooth flow of water.

This prevents the propeller from generating the necessary

thrust and leads to the formation of bubbles in the water,

which not only reduces the propeller's efficiency,

but also creates vibrations

and a distinct white noise underwater, contributing

to the overall pollution caused by shipping activities.

- While it's not apparent with these ships,

when looking at them and watching them above the water level

below the water level, there's a lot of sound pollution.

If you've ever been swimming

and had a boat pass nearby,

you can hear the boat much better under the water

than you can above, and that's because sound transmission

of water is much more efficient.

- [Narrator] Acoustic pollution can cover vast areas

under water, preventing marine animals from hearing

their predators or prey connecting with their mates

and young and finding their feeding grounds.

This noise has also deafened fish, interfered

with their habitat selection,

and contributed to a decline in species biodiversity.

But engineers are now coming up with systems

to help solve this problem whether intentionally or not.

In 2017, Danish Shipping Company,

Maersk spent more than $100 million to save fuel

by retrofitting vessel hulls

and installing more efficient propellers on 11

of its container craft.

Five of these ships subsequently underwent acoustical

testing and were far less noisy by six to eight decibels.

That translates to a 75% reduction in acoustic energy.

- One of the solutions for dealing

with acoustic pollution from these ships was actually

to redesign the propeller.

It was ultimately started to try

and make the ship more efficient,

but it had the terrific byproduct of making them quieter

and resulting in less acoustic

pollution for the surrounding area.

- [Narrator] A commonly used approach for decreasing

underwater noise as well as fuel costs is to reduce

the speed of the vessel through engine power

limitation or EPL.

But operating slower, moving vessels isn't the most

attractive option for large shipping companies.

- When you look at the results from either slowing down

your speed or designing your propeller to be more efficient,

most companies would obviously prefer

to make themselves more efficient.

Reducing speed had a great effect,

but it obviously cost them time on their bottom line

for how long it took them to arrive to port.

- [Narrator] Maritime industry engineers are constantly

working to improve vessel efficiency,

and while it's documented that ships have caused damage

to marine life, the reverse is also known to happen.

Vessels cruise through thousands of nautical miles sailing

through countless marine ecosystems,

giving marine organisms time to build up.

This is known as biofouling.

- The organisms in the marine environment try

to populate the ship hull.

So invariably, we build up a community

of organisms on the bottom of the ship.

- Biofouling in particular, the accumulation

of crustaceans like barnacles can increase the ship's

resistance in water by 20 to 60%

and can lead to an increase in 40% in fuel consumption.

- Basically, they change the hull shape

and make it more difficult to ship to move.

This increases the amount of fuel required

and actually increases the noise level produced by the ship.

- To date, biofouling requires ships hulls to be scrubbed

and power washed on a regular basis.

However, new solutions are on the way

to prevent biofouling occurring in the first place.

One such innovative approach draws inspiration

from a product traditionally used to prevent diaper rash

in infants.

Desitin ointments iron oxide solution has shown

promise in curbing biofouling in creating a slippery

or non-stick surface on the hull.

Tests conducted in coastal waters have shown significant

reduction in marine growth when it's applied as technology

to combat biofouling advances, so does the search

for cleaner sources of fuel.

Japanese shipping and logistics company, NYK lines

and IHI power systems are developing the world's first

tugboat that runs on ammonia.

Ammonia is seen by some as a future source of clean energy

for the maritime industry.

It's versatile and abundant and you can store

and transport it.

Made from hydrogen and nitrogen there is no carbon atom

in the ammonia molecule, unlike traditional fossil fuels.

It emits zero CO2 during combustion.

But the production process at the moment is far from clean

over 100 years old and powered by fossil fuels,

the process creates a whopping 451 million metric tons

of CO2 emissions worldwide each year.

While the process needs to be cleaned up

and brought into this century,

ammonia has significant potential.

While challenges including the costs remain, it is hoped

that the price of renewable electricity will continue

to fall, making green ammonia a viable

clean fuel for the future.

As the clock ticks towards 2050,

the need for decarbonization innovations is key

and some of the most off-The-wall inventions

could prove the future of shipping

could once again be wind power.

French tech firm Aires Sea Wing is a high-tech

take on the humble kite.

Led by former Airbus engineers,

air Seas has developed a 1000 meter squared parafoil

that is designed to harness wind power

to assist in propelling even the heaviest loads

through the water.

This system combines kite like technology

with an automated flight control system.

- There's no doubt that with this technology,

we'll see greener travel in the sea in the coming years.

- [Narrator] This system demonstrates

that old age wind power concepts can merge

with modern technologies to create exciting, new,

sustainable and efficient solutions

for the maritime industry.

Harnessing wind energy assists with propulsion allowing

for maximum fuel efficiency.

This helps to decrease greenhouse gas emissions generated

by traditional engine based propulsion systems on ships,

and by utilizing wind power vessels can ease up

on the reliance of fossil fuels, which can greatly reduce

operational costs as well as their environmental impact.

This system is designed to be fully automated,

requiring minimal intervention from the ship's crew.

This can help reduce the crew's workload

and ensure a consistent and optimized performance.

Furthermore, the system can be retrofitted onto existing

vessels without requiring extensive modification,

since its adaptability for different sizes

and types of ships, allows

for widespread use across the shipping industry.

- When I look to the future of shipping, I see more

and more autonomy and more and more safety.

The marine environment is still really dangerous.

We've learned a lot in the prior century.

We have great weather prediction now,

so we're not driving ships into hurricanes.

We have better navigation because of GPS,

but we can take that to the next step.

We can have AI systems basically figure out

what the most economical shipping routes are

to avoid the anticipated weather.

We can have AI systems that are much more capable

of navigating narrow channel ways like these Suez Canal,

so we don't have the same risks of running a ground.

I think the next stage of shipping is really moving

to automation, and I think that's the next step,

is we're gonna have these autonomous vessels

that really reduce the likelihood of maritime accidents.

- [Narrator] The industry is undergoing a period

of significant change, and there's no doubt

that with all of these amazing new technologies

in our arsenal, it could revolutionize the way

we move our ships and goods around the world safely,

faster and greener. [upbeat music]