Technology Transfer in Novel Ship Design: A Deep Seabed Mining Study

Abstract

Designing new ships for new purposes, in this case deep seabed mining, without using proper selected reference vessels, if available, is challenging. In this paper, we show that the vessel features of a future deep seabed mining vessel have many similarities to offshore vessels in the deep-sea offshore oil and gas industry and can be used as such. We evaluate and discuss the technical, operational, and commercial performance of three possible vessel design solutions developed based on such a case ship.