The MO.E.WA project (MOdular Eco WAterbus) allowed to investigate in the market of inland and coastal waterways boating of passengers and goods the opportunities for innovation related to the introduction of a particular architecture defined modular vessel and patented by the company J. L. Econboard s.r.l.s..
This architecture is required to introduce the concept of operational flexibility also in the naval world (as always happens in the automotive and railway market). The study showed that this operation results in a multiplicity of favorable consequences that can be summarized as follows:
- For the Environment: the concept of sustainability is for the first time not only pursued by optimizing and innovating propulsion devices on board, but intrinsically changing the concept of the mission; today in fact the cost of the mission, which is above all the fuel consumption and therefore pollution that results, is only tied to the travel distance and the speed, because the payload is a very low rate of factors that determine the consumption of current vessels. With modularity you can predict a consumption which is also a function, in a decisive way, of the payload (with a few passengers, for example using a single module, with many passengers simply using assembled modules).
- For Industry: the introduction of the concept of modularity in the naval field, subject of an Econboard international patent acknowledged with maximum score in innovation, inventiveness and industrial applicability, marks the need for a new step forward in the boat industry of small and medium-sized vessels in terms of technology and in terms of the workforce training. This process is able to pour out in the industry the most advanced technology from the fields of transport, simultaneously allowingEurope to maintain a competitive edgethat has been shrinking in recent years.
- For traders: with the concept of modularity an operator can buy a craft of a certain transport capacity, having the properties of two, independent, identical, quickly assembled if necessary, and finally being able to use even in three different configurations (one, two on different routes, the assembled with double load capacity).
Studies have shown that the modular craft HannaH (
http://www.econboard.it/en/hannah(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)) will be present on the market the same price as corresponding conventional units. This proves that this action can result in a successful business with excellent prospects for growth and employment.
