In November, a ship carrying ethylene became the first gas tanker to set sail from INEOS Rafnes fitted with VentoFoil sails that provide extra, wind powered propulsion while out at sea.
The sails work in conjunction with the existing engines, using smart vacuum technology that amplifies wind strength by five times, to achieve remarkable efficiency and power. It’s expected to reduce fuel use for these journeys by between 5-10 per cent per year, with lower CO2 emissions too.
Shipping company Anthony Veder announced the launch of two sails supplied by Econowind on board the Coral Patula, which ships ethylene produced at the INEOS Rafnes cracker to other INEOS sites and customers around Europe.
Alongside game-changing investments such as the construction of Project ONE, it’s another example of how INEOS also increases efficiency and reduces CO2 emissions in hundreds of small ways.
Ethylene is the building block for a wide range of products essential to our daily lives, with applications in construction, healthcare and automotive, for example.
How the sails work
- Each sail is 16 meters high and 2.8 meters wide
- Driven up and down with the help of a computer-controlled hydraulic system, taken down and secured when the ship approaches a port
- Built-in ventilators create a vacuum behind the wing that multiples the force of the wind