Towards zero-emission shipping

Damen Air Cavity System (DACS)

Damen Air Lubrication System

Save fuel & reduce CO2 emissions

Emission-free sailing is now becoming feasible for inland and short sea navigation. Electrically-driven ships use batteries or electricity generated on board from ‘clean’ fuels such as hydrogen.

Wide application of emission-free ships is currently limited by energy storage and production capacity, as well as the associated high costs. As such, energy efficiency is especially critical for such vessels. DACS, with its potential for energy consumption in ships, can reduce the size of the energy generation and storage system or extend the vessel’s range. The benefits for battery powered vessels are reduced battery size and weight, as well as charging time.

DACS gives your vessel a longstanding, future-proof feature

The Damen Air Cavity System (DACS) originated from a research project at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. Maintaining a thin layer of air over the flat bottom of a vessel’s hull, DACS achieves a significant reduction in water resistance, leading to increased efficiency and a reduction of fuel consumption and, therefore, emissions.

Compliant with EEDI & EIA tax reduction

Fuel saving and resultant reduction in emissions

Lowering the ship resistance results in the reduction of the fuel/energy consumption and emissions. The hull optimisation generally helps to reduce the wave making and pressure resistance whereas the frictional resistance, which is dominant, considered as given and it is proportional to the wetted area. Damen Air Cavity System DACS forms stable air cavities on the flat bottom of a ship. The system has a high overall efficiency and can be used on ships for fuel consumption and emission reduction.


Savings about 5-10%

Seagoing ships

Relative efficiency of the DACS on seagoing ships is usually smaller compared to inland waterway ships. Hoverer, the seagoing ships are normally larger, sailing at higher speeds and therefore have more installed power and the absolute fuel consumption is higher, hence absolute savings on fuel and emissions on seagoing ships can be significant.


Savings up to 15%

Inland waterway ships

Inland waterway ships have a large flat bottom area and they sail at relatively low speeds, often in shallow water. This is why for this type of ship the relative fuel consumption reduction by DACS is the highest. The fuel savings and emission reduction is equal to between 8 and 15%.


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