On Monday 5 November, at a gala awards ceremony at London’s Science Museum, Rolls-Royce announced Kells and Connor Primary School, Belfast, as the winner of the 2012 Rolls-Royce Science Prize.
Set up in 2004, the Rolls-Royce Science Prize is part of the Group’s ongoing drive to promote science and engineering in schools by encouraging and rewarding inspirational science teaching. Each year, Rolls-Royce awards a total of £120,000 in cash prizes to schools who implement motivational science teaching.
This year’s nine finalist schools tackled a wide variety of challenges: from examining the impact of industrial innovation on Belfast and the World, to a placement programme on Materials Science, the creation of a school science museum and even the design of a living environment for Mars.
Pupils at the winning school took part in a ‘Made In Belfast’ project, exploring how past industrial innovation shaped the city of Belfast and had influence across the world. The pupils developed an understanding of the science behind the innovations and also completed a range of technology challenges.
Presenting the award, John Rishton, Rolls-Royce Chief Executive, said: "I am delighted to award this year's prize to Kells and Connor Primary School for their project 'Made in Belfast'. Their entry is a great example of what can be achieved through innovative and imaginative teaching and I congratulate both staff and pupils for their hard work."
Kells and Connor Primary received £15,000 to advance science teaching in their school, along with an invitation for a day out with the Red Arrows. Lark Hall Primary School, London, received the runner up prize of £10,000.
To date, Rolls-Royce has distributed over £810,000 in prize money to 360 schools across the UK. Each year the winning school is selected from a group of nine finalists – this year’s finalists emerged from a field of 1,500 schools and colleges that registered for the prize before June 2011.
The Rolls-Royce Science Prize is open to all schools and colleges in the UK attending courses at one of the Science Learning Centre’s. Entries for the 2013 Rolls-Royce Science Prize are now open - more details are available at: www.Rolls-Royce.com/scienceprize
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Today, Friday 2 November 2012, Rolls-Royce welcomed the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, to officially open the new Rolls-Royce Apprentice Academy in Derby. The new facility will enable Rolls-Royce to train additional apprentices to work in Rolls-Royce supply chain and East Midlands manufacturing companies.
Occupying 3740 square meters, the Academy has 13 training rooms and a workshop that is equipped with the very latest machines, tooling and software that will help today's trainees become tomorrow's high-class engineers.
Apprentices at the academy will undertake a wide range of programmes from Young Apprentices for 14 to 16 year olds on day release from school, to a Manufacturing Leadership programme that aims to develop leaders for the future. For the first time this training will be open to Rolls-Royce supply chain companies and other manufacturing organisations in the East Midlands.
During his visit to the Academy, the Chancellor commented that: "Excellence in engineering is what countries like Britain need if we are to win the global race that we are in. Apprenticeships and the new engineering qualifications that we are announcing today help us achieve that, by giving young people the skills that they want and that businesses and the economy need.
"I am pleased to take part in the opening of the new Rolls-Royce Apprentice Academy which will also benefit suppliers in small and medium sized manufacturing."
Colin Smith, Rolls-Royce, Director of Engineering and Technology, who accompanied the Chancellor during the visit, said: "We are delighted to welcome the Chancellor to Rolls-Royce to celebrate the opening of our new Apprentice Academy. We set the highest standards, both in educating our people and in delivering the most efficient products in the industry for our customers. What we do is exciting and it's great that this new Academy will offer access to state-of-the-art facilities and training to a wider range of young people who are beginning their careers in engineering."
Rolls-Royce has had an apprenticeship programme for over 100 years. In 2012 the Group recruited over 300 apprentices and at any one time we have over 1000 apprentices on our programmes around the world. OFSTED graded the Rolls-Royce apprenticeship programme outstanding in all areas and Rolls-Royce is one of only two non-educational organisations to be awarded Beacon Status by the Learning & Skills Improvement Service.
Rolls-Royce UK Investment
- Rolls-Royce has invested £1.7billion on improved facilities and new equipment in the last five years (incl. 2011). Almost 60% (£978m) of this has been in the UK.
- In 2011, we invested £466 million globally, £246 million of which was in the UK.
- Over 21,000 people work for Rolls-Royce in the UK.
- Activity generated by Rolls-Royce, its supply chain and employee spending supports around 106,000 UK jobs – accounting for one in 300 of the British workforce.
- Because of our highly skilled workforce, employee productivity is 80% higher than the national average and wages are about 40% higher.
- Rolls-Royce accounts for 2% of UK exports, £7.8bn of GDP.
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Rolls-Royce is a leading supplier of mission critical marine power and propulsion systems, and our equipment is in use on more than 30,000 vessels with 4,000 customers across the offshore, merchant and naval sectors.
We supply sophisticated equipment to 70 navies, and this week at the Euronaval show in Paris, Rolls-Royce is showcasing marine capabilities including the new MT7 gas turbine, which has been selected to power the US Navy's Ship to Shore Connector – a new generation of hovercraft. The MT7 has been derived from the highly successful AE1107 aero engine which has achieved over 45 million operating hours and powers the US Marine Corps' V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
Other announcements at Euronaval include the development of a new, highly efficient mini water jet to propel unmanned surface craft for the US Navy. The new water jet will be the smallest Rolls-Royce design to date and will be used in the growing market of unmanned marine craft. Rolls-Royce also announced broadened capability in ship design with the establishment of a new team dedicated to the development of naval ship designs.
If you are attending Euronaval, you can visit us at Hall 2B stand F24.
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Rolls-Royce’s state of the art Seletar Campus in Singapore today played host to Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who visited the site as part of a royal tour of South East Asia and the Pacific. The 154,000 square metre site is the largest aerospace facility in Singapore. It includes an Assembly and Test Unit; a Wide Chord Fan Blade manufacturing facility; an Advanced Technology Centre; and a Regional Training Centre.
During the visit, Their Royal Highnesses unveiled the first Rolls-Royce aero engine assembled and tested in Singapore, a Trent 900 which powers the Airbus A380. They also viewed the first wide chord fan blades to be produced at the facility and met employees who have completed specialist training, either at the Regional Training Centre in Seletar or at facilities in the UK, alongside their British colleagues.
Mark King, Rolls-Royce, President - Civil Aerospace, said: “We are proud and delighted to welcome Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Rolls-Royce as we celebrate two important milestones today: the completion of our first batch of wide chord fan blades and the completion of the first Trent aero engine assembled and tested in Singapore. At Seletar we are bringing together state of the art technologies, advanced manufacturing techniques and highly skilled people to produce some of the most advanced aero engines in the world. This fantastic new facility gives us the extra capacity we need to deliver on our order book, which stands at over £60 billion. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved in achieving these important milestones.”
Rolls-Royce will also assemble and test the Trent 1000 engine at the Seletar Campus. The Trent 1000 is the quietest, cleanest and lightest civil aero engine in service today and powers the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
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Santiago, Friday August 31, 2012. LAN Airlines, one of Latin America's leading passenger and cargo airlines, today became the first airline in the Americas (and one of the first in the world) to receive the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Equipped with the latest technology, the aircraft will revolutionize the airline industry. LAN will receive 32 of this new aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines over the next ten years, with the first three to be delivered this year.
LAN Airlines' CEO, Ignacio Cueto, stressed the importance of the delivery for the Company and celebrated the benefits this aircraft will have both for the regional aviation industry and the travel experience of passengers:
"LAN is proud to be the first airline in the Americas to receive the 787 Dreamliner," said Ignacio Cueto, CEO LAN Airlines. "This is not only a milestone for LAN, but also for all of our passengers that will experience an enhanced LAN in-flight experience thanks to the cutting edge technology and visionary elements of this new aircraft. The Dreamliner will make it possible for us to cover greater distances in a more environmentally conscious and highly efficient aircraft which will help ensure our sustainable growth".
"LAN has clearly become the leader in aviation in Latin America and across the globe due to its strong leadership, unrivaled customer service, and commitment to technology and innovation," said Van Rex Gallard, Vice President of Sales for Latin America, Africa, & Caribbean, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "The addition of the 787 to the LAN fleet will help them maintain that leadership edge by increasing their global presence and bringing a new and exciting flying experience to more passengers in more locations around the world."
Peter Turner, Customer Vice President, Civil Aerospace, Rolls Royce stated: "We are proud to support such a significant moment both for LAN and air transport in the Americas. The Trent 1000, designed exclusively for this aircraft, offers exceptional financial and environmental benefits and we look forward to playing our part in providing another excellent customer entry into service with this engine".
The first cities served by the LAN fleet of 787s are Santiago, Buenos Aires, Lima, Los Angeles, Madrid, and Frankfurt. The aircraft will begin to fly commercially over the next few months, and these routes will be added gradually during its first year of operation.
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Paul Greaves, Rolls-Royce Head of Marine Research and Technology, outlines the challenges posed to the global maritime industry by rising fuel costs and the introduction of emissions legislation. Here he describes the role technology can play in meeting these challenges and talks specifically about how Rolls-Royce has combined new technology to substantially reduce fuel consumption and emissions in its award winning Environship.
Shipping is the most efficient way of transporting goods, both for cost and global emissions. It's the 'good guy' of freight forwarding.
Despite this, there is a growing appetite among shipping businesses worldwide for new technologies that will make vessels more competitive and less polluting. Why? Because, with a staggering 90 per cent of the world's traded product moving by sea, the industry's cumulative volume of emissions still weigh in heavily.
In fact shipping is responsible for emitting more than a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, a figure that outstrips the total CO2 emissions of Germany. Shipping's annual percentage share of global emissions stands at three per cent, compared to two per cent for aviation, a sector often under the spotlight for its contribution to climate change.
And shipping's heavy dependence on high sulphur content diesel creates other pollutants too. Estimates suggest shipping emits 700 times more sulphur dioxide than road vehicles.
Internal and external drivers
Much of the momentum to improve the environmental performance of shipping comes from the industry itself. Not least because operators can benefit from cuts in the spiralling costs of fuel by introducing more efficient vessels to their fleet.
But there are other important influencers. Governments are increasingly introducing emission limits, either applying them to national waters, or to shipping regions through pan-national bodies such as the EU. The biggest change will shortly come from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which has agreed additional controls on both ship design and emission levels for fleet operators.
Commercial pressures are also forcing merchant shipping companies to focus greater attention on environmental performance, especially as an increasing number of clients seek to gain better green travel credentials for the products they trade around the world.
Together these private and public sector drivers are creating a pincer movement on the marine industry. The result is a burgeoning agenda of challenges and opportunities for leading marine engineering specialists such as Rolls-Royce. Demand is on for them to bring innovative products to market that will keep shipping both environmentally and economically in the fast lane.
Expertise to the fore
"We are producing whole-vessel solutions as well as offering clients retro-fits that give quick payback," says Paul Greaves, Rolls-Royce Head of Marine Research and Technology.
"For example, Norway has a rigorous measure in place for reducing nitrous oxides through taxation. It also has plentiful natural gas supplies. So our Environship short-sea cargo vessel, with its gas-powered lean-burn engine, is the perfect choice."
A Rolls-Royce Environship is an entire drawing-board-to-shipyard package that exploits the same engineering expertise used to create ships for the offshore oil and gas industries, where seas are notoriously unforgiving and treacherous.
Along with the gas engine, the vessel combines three ground-breaking technologies: hydrodynamic hull design; a high efficiency integrated rudder and propeller system; and a hybrid shaft generator to produce more efficient on-board electricity.
Compared to similar sized diesel-powered vessels, an Environship slashes nitrous oxide emissions by 90 per cent and carbon dioxide emissions by up to 40 per cent, while only producing minimal traces of sulphur dioxides.
The first three Environships are already being built in the Far East to detailed Rolls-Royce specifications. All will operate in Norwegian waters but, with other countries and regions, including the Mediterranean, also considering introducing emission control areas, there are broader potential markets for this cutting-edge craft.
"A short-sea cargo vessel may see twenty to thirty years' service, so ship operators need to think ahead when commissioning new ships," adds Paul. "It's not the legislative landscape today that matters, but what the legal requirement may be during the ship's lifetime."
Meeting the maritime mandate
And a major international agreement is about to turn up the heat on seagoing energy efficiency.
The IMO's new regulations are the first worldwide, legally-binding agreements of any industry aimed at curbing carbon emissions. From January 2013, all vessels above 400 gross tonnes will need a Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP), while the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) will be applied to the design of a range of new craft that will steadily increase to include the majority of vessel types.
Ships built between 2015 and 2019 will have to rate 10 per cent higher for energy efficiency than present vessels. For ships built between 2020 and 2024 the rating will increase to 20 per cent, while for those built after 2024 an energy efficiency improvement of 30 per cent will be necessary.
The aim is that both programmes will help the industry cut yearly carbon emissions by more than 150mn tonnes by 2020. By 2030 experts predict this figure could more than double, while average annual fuel cost savings for the world shipping fleet could top $200bn.
Get with the retro-fit
For operators with vessels that may have years of service left, how can they comply with these demands?
One possible option is 'slow-steaming'. As the terms suggests, it means sailing at reduced speeds, gaining savings in both fuel costs and carbon emissions. The trend for slow steaming has gained favour during the economic slowdown, but industry observers believe operators will abandon the practice once markets recover.
A more realistic answer lies in gaining efficiency and environmental benefits by retro-fitting selected technologies.
Again Rolls-Royce has smartly tailored its products to meet demand. Proving especially successful is the company's adapted version of the Environship's integrated propeller and rudder system, known as Promas Lite. It's relatively quick to install during dry-dock and, depending on the characteristics of the vessel, efficiencies range from five to 15 per cent. So far every Promas Lite installed has achieved payback within two years.
The ever-shifting target
This all sounds like great news but, as ever, it's just the tip of the climate change iceberg. Unless there is some deep economic rupture, or a cataclysmic natural event, the volume of sea transport seems set to grow, and inevitably so will emissions.
The main impact period of IMO's regulations, when fleet operators will replace old ships with new EEDI complaint models, is expected from 2030 to 2050. Yet experts predict that while this will restrain the industry's greenhouse gases, it will fail to secure a net reduction.
This means the quest for new technologies and marine engineering solutions is unceasing.
What's next for maritime technology?
"There are several emerging technologies with the potential for further development, but the right commercial drivers need to be in place," says Paul. "Renewables like solar panels have yet to 'buy their way' onto ships because of cost and an absence of incentives.
"Having said that, companies like B9 Shipping are looking at adapting traditional technologies to suit the modern age. They're spearheading the idea of using automated sails to power cargo vessels which would be supplemented with Rolls-Royce gas engines in calm conditions . And Enercon has updated the Flettner rotor concept, first developed in the 1920s, using tall chimney-like vertical spinning rotors to gain aerodynamic lift from windpower.
"Advances in high-temperature superconducting technology for propulsion motors may offer another area of potential development," adds Paul. "They transmit greater electrical current with minimal resistance, so they are not only efficient, the motors themselves can be smaller and lighter as there is not such a volume of wire needed."
And in one of the most promising emerging developments, Rolls-Royce is coordinating an EU funded €10mn multi-partnership project called STREAMLINE, exploring new concepts in propulsion technology. This includes the LAP concept which is a large diameter propeller placed out behind the stern. Expectations are they can achieve a 15 per cent efficiency saving. If so, it will mark a huge leap forward in maritime technology as previous advances in the propeller alone have only notched up around one per cent improvement every decade.
New horizons
"In many ways it feels like we are embarking on a whole new revolution in shipping design and technology," says Paul.
"Environmental performance is becoming a key driver for choosing new fleet, especially as emission regulations increase, as inevitably they will. This means maritime engineers have to be increasingly creative. For us that's both exciting and demanding.
"People often think of shipping as a conservative industry resistant to change. But right now the momentum for new marine technology shows the sector has its sights firmly set on innovation."
