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Louis Dreyfus vessel to have world’s largest suction sails

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Louis Dreyfus Armateurs will equip one of its vessels with three of bound4blue’s suction sail systems in 2023.

The three eSAIL systems will be installed on a vessel owned and operated by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA), the latest event in a three-year relationship between the companies. Each of the systems will be larger than the one installed on La Naumon, currently the largest suction sail ever built and installed on a vessel.

Financing of the project has been closed with support from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Acceleration Program.

José Miguel Bermúdez, CEO of bound4blue, highlights that this is "a great milestone to expand our technology, as it gives us the possibility of scaling up our systems for larger ships and doing it with a top-tier shipowner in France and in Europe, which is undoubtedly a big step forward for bound4blue”.

The EIC support was very important for bound4blue, said Bermúdez helping to accelerate development and help such technologies to become standard for sustainable maritime mobility.

Kamil Beffa, CEO of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs: “We pay particular attention to the decarbonization of all our ships and are taking a proactive approach to study, develop and adopt solutions in this direction. Our ship project management, engineering and innovation teams have been working for more than 3 years in partnership with bound4blue to implement an innovative and environmentally virtuous solution to assist in the propulsion of our ships.

“With the eSAIL system, the sail propulsion will take the form of boundary layer suction wing profiles and will take advantage of the apparent wind encountered by the vessel to generate additional thrust. This device should make it possible to generate substantial fuel savings."