Owners and operators can achieve significant savings by monitoring, leading to reduced fuel and energy use
Shipowners can save thousands of dollars a day by analysing data from sensors and meters and implementing cost-saving applications.
Wilhelmsen Ship Management head of data and performance management Øyvind Stordal says fuel monitoring and emissions management has become important due to IMO’s upcoming carbon intensity indicator (CII) and the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).
“Shipowners need to prepare for new regulations as there could be a huge financial impact,” he says. Both measures are expected to drive owners to cut fuel consumption and emissions.
CII is expected to impact shipowners’ operations in 2023, encouraging them to reduce CO2 emissions. The EU ETS will come into force January 2024 for ships of more than 5,000 gt. “Entities will need to buy the right to emit CO2 when in EU waters,” says Mr Stordal.
Discussions in the European Parliament in May 2022 changed the rules for when the ETS will affect shipping, delaying its implementation for one year. “But there will no longer be a phase-in period, with 100% of emissions covered from day one,” says Mr Stordal.
Smaller ships will also be embroiled in this regulation, as from 2028, all vessels from 400 to 5,000 gt will be included in EU ETS. In addition, nitrogen oxides and methane emissions will also be included.
Wilhelmsen has introduced an active performance and compliance monitoring system for its shipowner clients to manage and plan their operations as regulations come into force.
Offshore support vessel (OSV) owner Rawabi Vallianz Offshore Services (RVOS) is implementing electronic fuel monitoring fleetwide to establish best practices, improve vessel fuel consumption and reduce CO2 emissions.
RVOS is outfitting its vessels with FuelTrax electronic fuel management systems (EFMS) in 2022-23 for accurate fuel usage transparency and emissions tracking. This investment by RVOS, a joint venture between Saudi Arabia’s Rawabi Holding and Singapore’s Vallianz Holdings, follows an initial trial of EFMS completed Q4 2021.
Systems are being fitted on platform supply vessels and anchor-handling tug supply vessels in Indonesia, Singapore, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
“There is no doubt that digitalisation in the upstream and offshore arena is here to stay,” says Rawabi Holding vice president, oilfield services division, Ahmed Al-Qadeeb. “This solution will meet the sustained performance set for the RVOS fleet.”
EFMS measures direct fuel consumption and transfers on board. It takes direct measurements using Coriolis smart meters to measure mass-flow rather than volume.
The system consistently measures fuel quality and transmits that data to the FuelTrax operations centre for real-time monitoring.
“By providing immediate transparency on consumption and engine configuration with high accuracy, inefficient practices — such as running too many engines in standby mode, or at the dock — are immediately identified, allowing for corrective action,” says FuelTrax vice president of operations John Donovan.
“Once best practices are established, alerts can be set for deviation from protocol. FuelTrax has a proprietary optimisation protocol that provides recommendations on throttle settings during transit.”
Adds Mr Donovan, “Combined, these practices have been proven to reduce consumption by 5% to 20%, depending on the region and vessel activities.”
He says FuelTrax has installed fuel meters and sensors on more than 720 vessels, mainly OSVs. Owners and charterers want systems independent from vessel networks to produce standardised data for analysis.
“Charterers want standardised suites of sensors for equalised data across fleets,” says Mr Donovan. “They want data from Coriolis mass flow sensors for electronic fuel management with auditable accuracy that is independent from other ship systems.”
Data analytics
Vessel owners can gain greater insight by analysing data from ship systems to improve performance and operations. VPS Yxney chief commercial officer Sindre Bornstein says owners can understand the potential for expenditure and emissions savings by using data to create insight and collaboration. “There is no silver bullet, but data is an essential ingredient,” he says.
“Using fleet data, owners can plan for the future, by setting goals, planning scenarios and pursuing continuous emissions reductions.”
Data-driven decarbonisation is the solution with the least capital investment and largest operational expenditure savings.
Mr Bornstein says owners should “decarbonise maritime operations by using available data to create insight, transparency and network collaboration for operators, charterers and other stakeholders.”
VPS Yxney offers Maress as a vessel and fleet monitoring solution for decarbonisation using data. It also offers fuel testing, NOx monitoring and an advisory to reduce environmental impacts.
Mr Bornstein says 5-20% fuel savings are possible without investing in new technology, but through improving vessel performance. “Operational improvements are easily scalable to an entire fleet,” he says.
But there are challenges to achieving fuel savings across fleets. “Vessel owners often have a diverse set of data collection systems on the vessels in the fleet,” he explains. “There is need for a flexible top layer where data from all vessels can be displayed together.”
This data can be shared with charterers who require greater transparency and can enable owners to address energy efficiency beyond compliance.
“Sharing emissions data with charterers, financial institutions and other stakeholders can create competitive advantages,” says Mr Bornstein.
Benchmarking fleets
Owners can also use software and algorithms to benchmark performance and fuel and lubricant quality across fleets.
Viswa Group business development manager Ganesh Natarajan says the group developed methodologies using algorithms to calculate the quality of lube oil and its potential effect on ship engines.
“This algorithm converts qualitative data into quantitative for a particular oil versus another,” he says, adding owners could save more than US$700,000 by selecting more effective lube oil with better performance qualities to prevent unplanned maintenance and extend overhauls.
“For this instance, the savings have been calculated based on the technical specifications of a vessel with a 10-MW main engine and four 750-kW auxiliary engines,” Mr Natarajan says.
Calculated total annual tangible savings would be US$14,680 per ship. “For a fleet of 50 such vessels, this would be US$734,000.”
A similar service was developed for heavy fuel oil and very low sulphur fuel oils. “We are looking at energy potential from fuels, looking at the energy density, calorific value and combustion properties of fuels,” he says. Benchmarking fuels could lead to savings in consumption and emissions of at least 5%.
