Is this the future of shipping vessels?

NYK Shipping lines has put together this very cool video outlining their Super Eco-Ship Concept design.  All of the concepts that they have incorporated would be huge game changers in the industry.  However, the one’s I was most interested in are the LNG fuel cells, and the internal crane system.

Obviously, the use of LNG would have a profound impact on the emissions of the vessel.  However, it was the idea of a containerized fuel cell system that intrigued me.  This could potentially help with some of the bunkering concerns that Ports are addressing as they consider the adoption of LNG as a logistics fuel.  If all of the compression and refueling facilities were handled offsite and drayed into the port, it could ease many of the LNG concerns.

The internal crane systems could also help address some of the land side infrastructure concerns by decreasing the load and unload times of the new larger classes of vessels.  In addition, smaller ports or those that haven’t invested in their crane infrastructure could stand a better chance of attracting the larger ships.  efficiency is the name of the game in global logistics and anything that helps reduce time in port should be a welcomed innovation.