Pump water into sand to free Suez ship, says Edinburgh professor
The giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal could be freed by pumping water into the sand beneath it, an Edinburgh engineering expert has proposed.
Professor Stephen Salter told The Scotsman that “fluidising” sand under the 220,000-tonne Ever Green could be the solution.
However, he said the canal authorities might even decide to blow the ship up, such was the urgency of re-opening the waterway, which carries around 10 per cent of the world’s trade.
The Panama-flagged vessel, travelling from Asia to Europe, has been stuck sideways across the canal in Egypt since running aground last Tuesday.
The emeritus professor of engineering design at the University of Edinburgh said: “We’re looking at fluidising the sand underneath the ship by pumping water under it to blow out the sand.
“It seems to me that would have a fairly good chance of working. I would give it 50/50.”
Prof Salter said the process involved the water separating granules of sand so it behaved more like a liquid.
He said: “It is usually used to accelerate combustion in coalfired power stations, but you could also use it for moving material up from underneath a ship, or near the bow.
“You would need water pumps and hoses that you could poke down under the ship.
“What I have done is drop a little note about this to a political friend who has lots
of contacts. Every inventor in the world will be thinking of clever ideas for it and the canal people will be deluged. I want to be able to go to my grave feeling that at least I did my little bit.
“The trouble is they desperately need to do it quickly because of all the ships queuing up. They might decide the best thing is to blow the ship up.”
Prof Salter said that had been done during the Gulf War.
The Ever Green got stuck about four miles north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the Ever Given, which is Panama-flagged and Japanese-owned, plans to pump water from interior spaces of the vessel, while two more tugs were due to arrive yesterday to join others already trying to move the vessel.
Lieutenant General Osa
ma Rabie, head of the canal authority, said he did not know how long it would take to dislodge the ship.
He said that he oped a dredging operation could free the Ever Given without having to resort to removing its cargo to lighten it.
He added: “We are in a difficult situation, it’s a bad incident.”
Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, which owns the vessel, said it is considering removing cargo
containers if other refloating efforts fail.
A maritime traffic jam has grown to more than 320 vessels near Port Said in the Mediterranean, Port Suez on the Red Sea and in the canal system on Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake. About 10 per cent of world trade flows through the canal, with some 19,000 vessels passing through in the last year.