Energy Efficient Ship Operations News

For decades the maritime industry has long-theorized of emulating the “airline model” in uniformity and technical capability of its own ship and boat integrated bridge platform. Enter Rolls-Royce and the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland which together have launched a ship intelligence system that it believes could be the next major transition for the shipping, able to gather, process and reasonably present increasing amounts of complex and high-level data from onboard systems to manage propulsion, navigation and potentially lead .to autonomous vessels.

Rolls-Royce, together with VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, unveiled its latest vision of Ship Intelligence, a bridge concept which it said could become reality by 2025. Rolls-Royce has worked together with VTT’s researchers and Aalto University to develop the new bridge, known as the Future Operator Experience Concept or ‘oX’. It offers the crew smart workstations, which automatically recognize individuals when they walk into the bridge and adjust to their own preferences.

Polarcus receive the world’s first-ever DNV Level 1 Triple-E™ rating for its fleet of sesimic survey vessels. Triple-E™ is a voluntary environmental rating scheme for ships with a rating from Level 4 to Level 1, where 1 is the highest. To achieve Level 1, all levels must be complied with and there are areas of compliance within management, operation and design. The rating is based on a verification of a ship’s actual energy efficiency and environmental performance, carried out by an independent third party.

Helsinki - AET has ordered NAPA-DSME Power® for installation on four newly-built 319,000 deadweight ton (DWT) VLCC vessels. A collaborative software from NAPA and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), NAPA-DSME Power® can save up to 5 percent of a tanker’s fuel costs. Using sensors integrated with DSME’s energy efficient tanker designs, NAPA-DSME Power® monitors energy efficiency, emissions, fuel consumption and trim. This data is immediately accessible to officers onboard, along with weather updates, arrival times and other key performance indicators to inform decisions and enable efficiency optimization in ‘real-time’.

BMT Group is involved in a three-year research project called “Low Carbon Shipping: A Systems Approach.” The project is aimed at limiting the environmental impact of carbon emissions from the world’s shipping systems to comply with new legislation and mitigate global warming. 90% of goods arrive in the UK by ship and current estimates show shipping’s share of global emissions could increase to 20-30% by 2050. The project has received nearly $2.8 million from the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Program, part of the nearly $869 million the program is investing in research in low-carbon technologies. BMT has been charged to develop technologies for low carbon shipping and more energy-efficient ship operations.