Decarbonizing Global Shipping: How a Nature-Inspired Hardware Solution Is Transforming Maritime Efficiency with Krassi Fotev

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by HighLevel, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down decarbonizing global shipping, how a nature-inspired hardware solution is transforming maritime efficiency. And to drop these value bombs, I have brought Krassi Fotev in the EO Fire studios. Krassi is a maritime technology entrepreneur leading innovation in vessel efficiency and decarbonization. He is driving the adoption of passive hardware and soon data-driven solutions to reduce emissions and transform global shipping operations.

0:32John Lee Dumas:So today we talk about shipping inefficiencies, breakthrough technology from lab to ocean, and oh so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Crossy and our sponsors. Today's show is sponsored by strawberry.me. If you're feeling stuck or like you're ready to get to the next level in your career, then finding the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place.

1:08John Lee Dumas:And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Krasi, I want to start by talking about shipping inefficiencies. What are the key inefficiencies that are currently driving emissions in global shipping? And why the heck have they persisted for so long? Shipping is being a big transport of goods. Even small reduction of the emissions over there will account for a relatively big percentage of the global emissions that we have. So focusing on improving efficiency shipping is a good thing to do, but we should not lose focus of the other inefficiencies and the other modes of transport and electricity production and so on.

2:02John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about breakthrough technology. How are you developing a simple, passive, zero-OPEX fluid flow technology to improve performance and fuel efficiency? It started from observation in nature. I was windsurfing on the island of Bonaire at Lug Bay, to be precise. And after wind direction change, I noticed two-dimensional ripples on the bed everywhere around me. So my education in physics kicked in and I began to think that if those structures are indeed persistent, and they turn out to be after research, then they must assist the flow somehow. Otherwise, they'll smell out and they'll disappear.

2:53So this was the basis of the invention, and this is the basis of starting 13 Mari. So again, going back to your original question, why some people believe that this technology may not be successful, it goes against the common wisdom that a smoother surface This is a surface that produces less drag. As we found out, being able to modulate the flow, being able to assist the fluid self-organize is indeed assisting the drag and reducing the drag and helping the flow. So again, this is something that goes against the common wisdom that has been there for a really long period of time. And the work that we've done into towing tanks, experimental work, the work that we are doing at the moment on vessels with confirmed indication of savings in actual operational conditions, at the fraction of the cost of other technologies like wind assistive propulsion or air lubrication, just to mention a few, is great.

4:03I mean, the elements are totally passive. There is no need to train anybody how to operate those because there's no need to operate them. Once they install, they always work. And this leads to considerable, how to say, considerable savings that come at literally zero operating expense. In other words, the return of investment to the vessel owner is probably one-fifth of what the return of investment to the vessel owner utilizing us, active technologies maybe.

4:41John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about going from lab to ocean. So what exactly does it mean, Crossy, for you to launch your first commercial vessel solution and what partnerships made that possible? It's a big gap, right? It's a big gap going from the lab to the actual implementation. Why is it a big gap? Because the testing facilities that were built throughout the 20th and new facilities being built in 21st century as well. And we were at one of those at Marugame on Imabari Island owned by Imabari Shipbuilding.

5:19Those testing facilities, they are designed to work using something called a fruit similarity. And while the fruit similarity is able to capture the overall performance of the vessel well and could be a good indicator for full-scale performance. This similarity breaks when it comes to manipulation of a boundary layer, something that we do. So in other words, the conditions in the towing tank cannot be easily carried to full-scale operational conditions for the vessels, for the technology that we have. So getting to a full-scale implementation required a leap of faith. And this leap of faith was demonstrated by companies like Swire Shipping and Admore Shipping, later by an investment from Mitsui OSK Alliance and an investment secured from Mimabarishi Building.

6:15So without the two companies that placed the first commercial orders and without the investment from Mitsui OSK Alliance and Mimabarishi Building, we wouldn't be where we are at the moment.

6:26John Lee Dumas:So Fire Nation, we have a lot to talk about. Decarbonization in practice, Middle East expansion, the future of shipping, and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry.me. I've interviewed nearly 5 ,000 successful entrepreneurs and one thing they all have in common, they've enlisted mentors, coaches, and people along the way to help guide them. But where do you find the right coach or mentor? Great question. And that's where strawberry.me career coaching comes in. I speak from personal experience when I say that coaching and mentorship has helped me get to where I am today.

7:03John Lee Dumas:In fact, you might not even be listening to Entrepreneurs on Fire if it weren't for my very first coaching mentor, Jamie Masters. I knew that in order to produce the best podcast, I needed to find someone who was where I wanted to be. Here we are nearly 14 years later, and I'd say I made a fantastic investment. So if you're feeling stuck or like you're ready to get to the next level, then finding the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session. That's strawberry.me slash fire. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom.

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8:21John Lee Dumas:Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Kras, you are back. And as I kind of teased before the break, I want to get into decarbonization in practice. I mean, for ship operators today, what exactly does real world decarbonization actually look like? We're not talking theory, but in operations. Well, there are many things that are being tried and many things the operators work on because saving fuel not only reduces the carbon footprint, but it leads to enormous commercial advantage. The obvious things are implementation of software technologies and optimizations of routing that is aligned with the currents.

9:13And those things are definitely leading to an improved performance of the vessels. But getting to the core and getting to the fundamentals and how the energy is being lost and dissipated in shipping is something that we are really passionate about. And this is why we are working on 13 Mari and the passive direct reduction for vessels. In terms of the other practical implementations, the majority of the implementations that are available today, again I'll mention the wind assisted proportion, this has been probably around for thousands of years, with the introduction of flattened rotors about 100 years ago, are old technologies.

10:05Then we have the air lubrication. The air lubrication is a relatively new technology which was introduced by Mitsubishi, if I remember correctly, about 25-30 years ago. We also look at easy to implement technologies like Boskab fins, which today are adopted by the majority of the vessel owners because of relatively inexpensive product that has been proven to work. But this is again technology that was created by Mitsuyo Yosuke and I in collaboration with the Kishima Laboratory maybe 25-30 years ago. So we see that most of the technologies that are available are relatively old technologies, perhaps with the exception of the silicon paints, which are relatively new development.

10:58but I haven't followed the history of when the first city campaign was applied, but I would be surprised if this was less than 15, 20 years ago. So there are things that can be done about improving the vessel efficiency, improving the commercial advantage to the vessel owners, and they're implementing them. Um, we, uh, a newcomer with, uh, a product that has not been, um, is not available before. I mean, it's a novel product, um, has not been tested before. And, um, simply because of the simplicity of the product, we have, uh, a chance of commercial implementation. So it's, uh, it's a really, it's a really interesting space.

11:50John Lee Dumas:Speaking of interesting space, the Middle East is an interesting place. So I want to talk about the Middle East expansion. So why is the Middle East a key region for maritime innovation and specifically your Crossy expansion strategy? So there are multiple maritime hubs that we could go to and we can work with. Obviously, there is Singapore, there is Hong Kong, and there is Middle East. We can say that there is probably a maritime hub available in South Africa as well, because the majority of the traffic goes to those places. The Middle East for us is important, especially before the war on Iran, as relatively stable region, at least this is how the UAE, this is the image that UAE was building.

12:47And moving and expanding over there does make sense. Our technology can be implemented not only on container carriers and bulk of vessels, but on tankers too. And unfortunately, Unfortunately, the majority of the energy production still depends on oil and oil is a big part of it. So being able to offset a bit of the carbon emissions that we see from transportation of oil and after that from utilization of energy production is something that we should look to do.

13:25John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about the future of shipping. I mean, how do you personally see the future of shipping evolving with a combination of smart hardware, AI, autonomous maritime systems? I mean, these are all here and, of course, evolving rapidly as well. What's the future? The digital technology is here to stay. There is no question about it. But again, with the focus on digital technologies, we forget to look at the fundamentals. and the fundamentals are the vessel operates in a fluid, right? It loses the majority of the energy in the fluid so optimizations on the whole forms, optimizations on propulsor optimizations that tie to assisting the propulsor somehow with assisted, for instance, sales is something that the industry must adopt, in my personal opinion, to really be able to get to, and then we have the alternative fuels, but there are a lot of problems with those.

14:34If we begin thinking about using methanol or thinking about using ammonia, both of those substances are poisonous. So I don't expect that there will be a quick adoption of alternative fuels at the moment and still the long carbon chain feels something that the industry will be utilizing but if we are looking at getting to really zero emission industry and really zero emission operations and this is my physics education kicking in as well I believe that there is a need to use nuclear as strange as it may sound to people. It has been utilized in the navies for an extended period of time without serious drawbacks or consequences.

15:38So at least we are not aware of things that might have been happening on navy vessels. So that's something that the industry should really start looking into. And I believe that it's looking into.

15:55John Lee Dumas:So Krasia, Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more about your company. What should they do? It's extremely easy. You can always shoot an email at info at 13mari.com. you can always visit us online at 30mario.com as well I would prefer an email than anything else and yeah we are looking for new customers, we are looking for companies that are willing to try the technology and looking to enhance their energy saving devices I mean, the set of energy saving devices that they implement on the vessels.

17:08Thank you, John.

17:10John Lee Dumas:Hey, Fire Nation. A huge thank you to our sponsors and Crassi for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit EOfire.com slash guest. And I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry.me. If you're feeling stuck or like you're ready to get to the next level in your career, then finding the right coach can help. Go to strawberry.me slash fire and get 50 % off your first coaching session.

17:44John Lee Dumas:Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Thank you.