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About Us

Yoshinari Nishiki (left), assistant professor Jovana Jovanova (middle), and professor Lori Tavasszy (right)
team SCT/July 2020 at TU Delft
[photo: Florian Braakman]

Yoshinari Nishiki is an artist and researcher who conceived the idea of Single Container Transport (SCT). Experimenting with economically-sound and morally unacceptable ways to gain/circulate resources has been a hallmark of Nishiki's work. Methods of accumulation and distribution pursued have included, among others, free transport by crowd, moving a mountain of agricultural produce with food couriers, and single-handedly flipping a 20-foot container. Nishiki believes the degree of friction between SCT and the modus operandi indicates it could possibly be a pivot point to turn the direction of globalism.

Jovana Jovanova is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at TU Delft. Her research is focused on the design of large scale smart structures and systems. The designs may include smart materials and/or mechatronic components in order to perform multiple functions through controlled combination of structural properties and dynamic behavior. Applications vary from metamaterial structures, to soft robotics and origami engineering. She is excited to explore concepts of shape morphing of a single container to achieve multiple modes of movement on land and in water. Autonomous sailing with reconfigurable hard wing or self-folding and self-deployment for container morphing are just a couple of ideas that can be further developed!

Lori Tavasszy is a professor at the TU Delft on the topic of freight transportation and logistics systems. He works closely with the Port of Rotterdam and performs research on scenarios for the future development of the port. The focus of the research is on the economic and sustainability aspects of port logistics. He is keen to explore how art can picture port futures beyond the reality of today’s economics.

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Single Container Transport (SCT)

SCT is an experimental Chain of Custody (CoC) standard that requires transportation of goods partly by the yet-to-exist small-scale container shipping system, Single Container Transport (SCT), each of which carries a single 20ft dry container without emissions.

The viability of sail for international shipping had been overlooked since the oil crisis in the 70s, however there has been a greater interest in applying sailing technology for cargo shipping, now due to the climate crisis.

When digging into the reason behind the switch from sail to an engine for maritime propulsion, one would find out it was not because of the lack of speed, but the insufficiency of communication technology available between the captains and offshore operators that time, which made the planning of shipping harder in the beginning of the industrial age. In terms of energy efficiency, sail still beats any other forms of propulsion; energy return on investment (EROI) is significantly higher as a wind-powered vessel can directly be fueled at the point of movement.

When the ICT infrastructure is ripe and the prices of sensors are dropping down, can we possibly go back to full-sail yet fully autonomous? Advances in material science including additive manufacturing (3D printing) and shape-changing mechanisms would open up possibilities for a new life-cycle of a vessel and a new unit of cargo.

In order to achieve the GHG emissions goal for 2050 laid out by IMO, the energy efficiency of vessels needs to be improved by 80% or more compared to the level of 2008. It seems impossible to fulfill this merely by improving fuel efficiency, hydrodynamics, and cargo allocation like the industry did in the past 70 years.

The author of the OECD report on “The Impact of MegaShips”, Olaf Merk, in his latest essay Why Container Shipping is a Lot Like Farming, suggests looking at “smaller, more localised” agriculture that’s “quickly adapting demands of clients”, when thinking about the future of cargo shipping. The current scale of shipping is “[c]ompletely sealed off from their surrounding communities, highly specialised, continuously trying to catch up with ever-larger ships, today’s container terminals leave no room for the intermingling that once gave port cities their charm.” [1]

In intensive agriculture, the essential agricultural tool scythe has largely been replaced by the motorised lawn mower and combine harvester. However, scythes are beginning a comeback in American suburbs, since they “don’t use gas, don’t get hot, don’t make noise, do make for exercise, and do cut grass”. [2] The way scythes are getting re-deployed is in parallel with sailing; seemingly ancient technologies are becoming more relevant under a climate-focused efficiency measure.

SCT goes up against the ethos behind economies of scale, trying to find a permanent way out of the industrial society. The smallest-scale zero-emissions deep-ocean cargo shipping system would allow the industrially marginalised parts of the world to participate in global trade, making possible diverse tailor-made trade routes around the globe.

References:
[1] Why Container Shipping is a Lot Like Farming. (2020). Retrieved 31 August 2020

[2] Who Needs a WeedWacker When You Can Use a Scythe?. (2012). Retrieved 31 August 2020


Join SCT

We are aiming to make SCT into a multistakeholder governance group. We are currently looking for multinational corporations, national enterprises, governments, civil society bodies, and community initiatives to join us.