Setting our sails for success
Hinrich Brumm is passionate about the maritime world. Based in Hamburg, he recently took time out to cross the Atlantic in a sailboat. When at work, he’s busy developing solutions for clean shipping.
“A year ago, I realized a lifelong dream of crossing the Atlantic in my sailboat, with two friends as crew. That’s 11,000 kilometers, from Kappeln on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, via Morocco and the Canary Islands, all the way to the Caribbean! Those three months at sea showed me like never before just how magnificent and precious our natural world is. They also showed me that my job as industry manager at Endress+Hauser SICK is a calling, not just a career. The maritime industry needs to become more efficient and eco-friendly; my job is to drive the development of innovative solutions that bring us closer to realizing this goal.
“Regulations governing the shipping industry have already been tightened up considerably. Sulfur caps on marine fuels were introduced worldwide in 2020. And the EU has had rules in place since 2024 that require ships to pay for their CO2 emissions. Work is also underway on global regulations, with the International Maritime Organization mandating net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the shipping industry worldwide by 2050. Customers and investors have long been pressing for transparency around the industry’s environmental footprint, so it’s become increasingly important to measure emissions accurately and reduce them rapidly.
“Common practice at the moment is to calculate ship emissions manually from fuel consumption data. In most cases, this is simply taken from the bunker delivery note, although it’s not unusual for crew members to measure the fuel tank fill levels with a sounding tape. Someone in the shipping company then checks the figures and passes them on. This process is labor-intensive and prone to errors – which is why the team at Endress+Hauser SICK wants to automate it using an idea of mine. We’re developing a system for direct, verified emissions reporting. The idea is to continuously measure all emissions in real time using innovative sensors placed inside the smokestack. The system then transfers the data to a cloud server, where it is officially verified and transmitted securely to the relevant parties.
“This system has the potential to save shipping companies a lot of work and give them confidence in fully meeting regulatory requirements. And with its precision measurements, it would also give these companies accurate information on their vessels’ emission performance, enabling them to reduce fuel consumption and hence emissions. To make this system a reality, we are partnering in a German government-funded research project with two Fraunhofer institutes, a container shipping company, the Port of Hamburg, the Flotte Hamburg maritime fleet management company and an international marine classification society.
“I am confident that the shipping industry can get on top of decarbonization. It is, after all, well accustomed to pooling its efforts globally. You see, effective climate protection is a bit like a transatlantic voyage: It’s a matter of ‘all hands on deck,’ keeping one’s cool and tackling the matter in a coordinated fashion. Only by working together can we set our sails for success and accomplish great things.”
Driven by passion
Hinrich Brumm (56) grew up in Hamburg, a city with a major seaport, where the call of far-flung places is ever present. So during his studies in environmental and process engineering, it was natural that he developed a fascination with the question of how to measure and reduce ship emissions. His career prior to becoming Maritime Industry Manager at Endress+Hauser SICK included a 15-year stint at the international classification society DNV GL, where he championed clean shipping. In his spare time, the engineer likes to sail his yacht, a 43-year-old, 36-foot Hallberg-Rassy 352.
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