“K” LINE has launched “DRIVE GREEN PROJECT” in order to pursue environmental protection and energy savings with the world’s most advanced technologies integrated on the 7,500-unit car carrier, “DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY”, as its flagship. Construction was proceeded at Japan Marine United Corporation and completed in February 2016.

DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY : Secret Story of Development

Upon development of the construction plan series for car carriers, a movement to construct a single environmentally-friendly flagship for the new era was formed internally, in addition to responding to the demand for large ships and ships for a wide variety of cargo. We were able to obtain agreement from many people and entities such as shipyards and manufacturers of ship equipment for the idea of creating the equipment in which Japanese technologies would be fully utilized, which had led to the launching of a construction plan for a ship loaded with the latest environment machinery. The person in charge had manually drawn a rough picture (shown on the right) while having a discussion, saying, “how about something like this?”, and that became the starting point of constructing the ship.

DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY : Completed

In February 2016, we completed construction of DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY, the third ship in a 10-vessel fleet series of car carriers, each with a 7,500-unit capacity. The ship incorporates state-of-the-art technologies and unsurpassed energy-saving and environmental features, and its broad design can accommodate around 20% more vehicles than its predecessors. Compared with existing large ships, it can achieve a 25% or more reduction in carbon dioxide (CO_{2}) emissions, a 50% or more reduction in nitrogen oxides (NO_{X}), and a 90% or more reduction in sulfur oxides (SO_{X}) per vehicle carried.

DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY : MOVIE

Major Achievements

Japanese SOX Scrubber* for Ships Acquired First Certification from Republic of Panama, the Ship’s Nationality

After steady work and repeated adjustments made by manufacturers of ship equipment, shipyards and ship management companies, an SO_{X} scrubber* of Japanese quality was installed into a ship without confusion. After that, the SO_{X} emission control effect was approved as conforming to international standards following detailed data collection and application work based on demonstrated operation, and the scrubber obtained a certification from the ship’s nationality of Republic of Panama in 2017 for the first time as a scrubber manufactured in Japan.

*SO_{X} scrubber
Equipment which ensures dust removal and desulfurization by blowing sea water or clear water onto the emission gas from vessels’ engines

Ship of the Year Awarded in 2016

The DRIVE GREEN HIGHWAY was awarded with Ship of the Year 2016 for its environmental performance reducing the amount of CO_{2} emissions by 25% using solar power generation panels and exhaust heat recovery system, etc., and reducing NO_{X} emissions, which are also a cause of acid rain as with SO_{X}, by 50% having installed exhaust gas re-circulation devices, in addition to the SO_{X} scrubber.