The South Korean shipping company HMM has officially commenced sea trials for its first Wind-Assisted Propulsion System which is a domestically developed rigid wing sail. the system has been installed on the MT Oriental Aquamarine, a 50,000-dwt Medium Range (MR) tanker, which began operational voyages with the technology last week. The system has been developed by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE).
HMM plans to evaluate the performance of the sail over the next two years and then will consider expanding its adoption across the companies entire bulk carrier fleet.
