Suction sails ordered to save fuel and emissions

The three eSAIL systems by Spanish wind-assisted propulsion system maker bound4blue will be installed on the Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA) vessel next year.

The installation is the culmination of three years’ work between the two firms, with the French shipowner LDA seeking to optimise its operations and costs and, it says, above all reduce the carbon footprint of its fleet.

The installation, which will be carried out next year, has been supported by the European Innovation Council Accelerator Program, which predominantly supports small and medium-sized enterprises, including start-ups, ’to scale up high impact innovations with the potential to create new markets or disrupt existing ones’.

Spain-based bound4blue was founded in 2014 and develops wind-assisted propulsion systems as a turnkey option for shipowners and companies with an eye on reducing fuel costs and emissions. 

Its rigid sails are designed to be integrated on a wide range of vessels as a complementary propulsion system, reducing the engine power required. The company claims its systems reduce emissions by 40% and pay for themselves in less than five years. 

“We pay particular attention to the decarbonization of all our ships and are taking a proactive approach to study, develop and adopt solutions in this direction,” said Kamil Beffa, CEO of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs. ”With the eSAIL® system, the sail propulsion will take the form of boundary layer suction wing profiles and will take advantage of the apparent wind encountered by the vessel to generate additional thrust. This device should make it possible to generate substantial fuel savings.”

”This is very important for our company, not only financially but also in terms of accelerating our development and launching far-reaching projects,” said bound4blue CEO José Miguel Bermúdez. ”This will undoubtedly take our technology a step forward, increasingly becoming a standard for sustainable maritime mobility”.

* In March, bound4blue agreed to install two suction sails on a cargo ship belonging to Dutch shipping firm Amasus. The EEMS Traveller will be retrofitted with two 17m sails, which are slightly smaller than 18m versions placed on La Naumon, the theatre ship that is touring Spanish ports to provoke awareness of climate change.