The oil tanker Chemical Challenger is being fitted with sails. Chemship has a relatively young fleet, with an average ship age of seven years.
On 19 February Chemship commissioned its first ship to be fitted with wind assisted propulsion. The 9,155gt Chemical Challenger becomes the first chemical tanker in the world to be equipped with sustainable wind technology. The ship will serve on Chemship’s transatlantic route between the East Coast of the USA and the Mediterranean.
Four 16m-high aluminium wind sails were installed on the 134m vessel. The VentoFoils from Econowind create a direct wind surface of 180m 2 . Smart vacuum technology quintuples the force of the wind, creating a gross wind surface of 900m 2 . This is equivalent to an imaginary sail of 30m by 30m. Chemship expects to achieve an average CO2 reduction of ten per cent with these turbo sails.