"Young researchers from Kassel want to use an artificial cleaner fish to reduce fuel consumption in shipping. This would also benefit the climate.
About a meter long, with two fins on its back and four on its sides: This is what the robot cleaner fish that three young scientists want to put on the hulls of ships and thus reduce fuel consumption in shipping should look like.
The team from the University of Kassel won first prize in the Hessen Ideas Competition on Thursday evening in Frankfurt for the concept. Every year, researchers and students from Hessian universities compete there with innovative business ideas. In the final round at the Frankfurt Museum for Communication, the team from Kassel prevailed against ten competitors.
Florian Gerland, Tatjana Liese and Thomas Schomberg named their research project Larabicus. This is the Latin name for the real cleaner fish, which feeds on parasites on the scales of other marine or aquarium inhabitants and thus protects them from diseases. For ships, says Gerland, removing the slimy layer of algae and other microorganisms on the hull would mean a 30 percent reduction in fuel consumption - which would also benefit the climate.
From airplane to freighter
But how did people in the Kassel mountains come up with the idea of dealing with container ships? Actually, says Gerland, his research colleague Schomberg looked into how air resistance on aircraft fuselages could be reduced in his dissertation.
But then the two fluid mechanics saw a documentary about container ships - and realized: "The problem is much bigger in shipping." The settlement of microorganisms on the ship's skin can be slowed down with special coatings. "But still, within just a few days, a thin layer of slime forms, which increases fuel consumption by 25 to 30 percent."
Mechanical cleaning, on the other hand, is particularly difficult on container ships, which are often at sea for weeks. The robot cleaner fish developed by Larabicus could clean the pots while moving - a strong magnet should ensure that it remains very close to the hull but still mobile. In practice, a ship would always have to be accompanied by two robot fish and also have a few spare robots on board, says Liese.
Patent-protected drive system
So that the devices can move along the ship's hull, the researchers have developed a propulsion system about which they do not reveal much, although it is patent-protected. In any case, batteries are not needed, says Gerland, but the artificial fins would use the current - "it's a kind of underwater sailing system."
The scientists have so far tested their idea in the laboratory and in a river, but only the individual components - there is no finished robot fish yet. “We are currently looking for manufacturers for the individual components; we want to assemble them ourselves - at least for the first 100 fish,” says Gerland. He and Liese are confident that there is demand for a whole swarm of robots because: "We are already in discussions with three large shipping companies that have a total of 300 container ships in use."
If one day robotic cleaning fish were used for all merchant ships worldwide, says Liese, an amount of greenhouse gas emissions could be saved that corresponds to around 30 percent of Germany's emissions. If ships carried fewer microorganisms, the spread of invasive species would also be slowed.
The engineers Gerland and Schomberg brought the marine biologist Liese, who comes from Kiel, into the company to answer precisely these questions. Since they are planning to start a business in the next two years, they are now looking for a business expert to join their team." [1]
1. Ein Putzerfisch für Schiffsrümpfe: Rhein-Main Junge Wissenschaftler wollen Treibstoffverbrauch bei Schiffen senken. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. Nov 24, 2023. Von Barbara Schäder
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