Seeking US Partners for Deep Water Motion Resistant Crane Vessel

Opportunity:

With the phenomenal uptake of offshore wind, the need to lift heavy loads to significant heights in deep waters has never been greater. The problems this requirement presents is the availability, suitability and cost of the lifting vessels required. When lifting large heavy loads to great heights, it is essential that the crane has a stable platform from which to operate, otherwise it can prove impossible or at best, very dangerous to land the load and make the bolted connections. In deep waters (60m +) the normal Jack-Up vessel solution is out of its operational depth and conventional crane vessels can only operate in calm sea states. Other possible options, such as motion compensated cranes and Semi-Submersible cranes, are either far too small, or extremely expensive and rare (only around 3 very large semisubmersibles worldwide). There is a significant opportunity for a relatively low-cost vessel design that would be capable of handling large lifting loads to heights more than 150m in deep waters, whilst still being able to operate in the higher sea states.

Solution:

The concept brings together a number of known and well proven elements (a Spar, a Telescope, a Gimbal and a Moonpool), and combines them into a unique design of motion resistant crane vessel. The vessel would have a telescopically retractable spar on which the crane is mounted. This spar would be mounted via a gimbal frame through a moonpool in the vessel’s hull. This combination of key elements will enable the vessel to enter harbour with the spar fully retracted, the crane jib lowered, and the gimbal frame locked. When operational, the spar would be lowered, the gimbal frame unlocked, and the crane jib raised.

Additional large markets for scalable growth:

More and more countries are committing to offshore wind energy, DNV forecast that 289 GW of offshore wind will be installed by 2050. As a majority of suitable offshore sites around the world are in water depths of over 60m, this presents a huge market for deep water capable installation and maintenance vessels. In addition to the wind industry, large heavy lift crane vessels are in demand for installation and decommissioning operations for the oil & gas industry, as well as salvage operations. Other related spin-off concepts for wind turbine support platform, its deployment vessel and supply vessels also exist.

Competition:

There are a number of specialist lifting vessel concepts being developed by others, but most of these are designed for a single function or do not have the versatility of the proposed concept. Furthermore, most of the other concepts still have similar operational limitations to the equipment already available. There are also below hook heave compensation devices available, these are for use on conventional crane vessels, but these only compensate for the heave motion and not the roll and pitch. They are also limited by the operational limitations of the crane vessel to which they are attached.

Working together with academic partners in the UK (the University of Strathclyde), a US Corporate Partner / Co-Developer is sought, to fully commercialise the design. It is envisaged that upon completion, such a partner would take up licensing rights to build and market the vessels for use in US waters.