During the European Maritime Days in Svendborg, VesOPS held a pitch session together with Kjeld Aabo Marine Consulting, C.C. Jensen and JAR Marine Consult on the topic “How to reduce emissions by upgrading existing tonnage”.

Setting the scene for shipping

The presentation started by setting the scene on how shipping is being regulated with the intent to decarbonize the sector. Over the past years mandatory reporting on operations has been introduced by first the EU MRV system and followed by the IMO DCS system. In 2023, the energy efficiency index for existing ships (EEXI) and the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) was included as mandatory measures for the shipping industry’s carbon emissions on design and operations.

In 2024, EU followed up by stepwise including shipping in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and in 2025, the Fuel EU Maritime will be in place for ships trading in the EU. The ETS will push towards reducing carbon emissions – less emissions means less expenses to buy carbon allowances – while the Fuel EU will push towards shifting from conventional fuel to alternative fuel sources.

The shipping industry is busy changing to the new requirements. The engines that can handle the new e-fuels are under development, where the methanol ready engines already are in vessel under operation and preparations to include also ammonia engines are underway. The green fuels for the engines are not ready yet and the transition to new fuels is expected to be slow due to lack of supplies. Further the design of vessels being able to sail on the green fuels is different from conventional design where bunkering capacity and fuel tanks is a concern. The green fuels that are available are still expensive – 3 to 4 times the price of conventional fuel – and in general, it is expected that sailing on the green fuels will make transportation costs higher.

While all this is coming into place, the existing world fleet of vessels is sailing around on conventional design and conventional fuel. To meet the targets for emissions reductions, these vessels will have to reduce their consumption to reduce the emissions. There are several ways to get there and to find the right way and use the right measures, it is important for a vessel operator to identify the potential of the fleet.

Improving the fleet efficiency

By mapping the design in a digital twin model and pairing this with operational data, the full picture of a vessel potential both on design (equipment) and on operations can be given.

The digital twin identifies each consumer on board and the model is typically divided into three main areas:

• Mechanical – identifies the load related to the propulsion of the vessel
• Thermal – identifies the load related to any heating purposes on board
• Electrical – identifies the load related to any electrical consumption on board

After the preparation of the model, the operational data are loaded on top of the model and the consumption in different operational modes is identified which finally gives the full overview of the vessel’s potential over the full operational profile.

Design improvements

It is now a straightforward task to look for any improvements in the design and in the way the vessel is operated. For the design improvements, setting up an overview over “energy actions” where each measure is described by the technology, the cost of installation, the savings on the consumption and emissions and the return of investment (ROI) makes decision support overview on where to start with the improvements.

A full investment plan can be outlined including a timeline for the planning of implementation and the costs included.

As an example of an “energy action” on vessel is shown the effect of replacing oil purifiers with CJC filters. Both fuel and lubrication oil are traditionally cleaned in oil fired purifiers which makes the oil ready before injected into the engine. The purifiers run most of the time on a vessel and energy costs are high + the purifiers generate a lot of waste that must be kept on board until it can be delivered to a facility ashore.  By replacing the purifiers with a filter solution, the energy savings are considerable, and the waste generation is minimized. A list of energy actions is shown in the below figure, all sorted after ROI (the blue/orange curves) and showing the expected savings on the (total) yearly consumption. The CJC filter solution effect is marked by the red box.

 

A calculation example from a vessel on the particular filter solution is shown in the below table.

 

 

Once energy actions are implemented it should be possible to verify the effect of the implemented actions. By setting up monitoring equipment on fuel flow meters and in addition energy measuring devices on the critical equipment, it is then possible to measure the effect on what has been improved. If any improvements have been made to any propulsion devices, a torquemeter on the propeller shaft should be installed, to verify the effect of the retrofit. Once monitoring equipment has been installed, a continuous monitoring plan can be set up in the VesOPS system and the operational efficiency can be monitored and optimized.

Operational improvements

Operational data is the key to optimizing the operations of a vessel. By setting up monitoring systems as described before, data from the vessel is sent to shore to the system. The system includes a data verification routine, where all data is verified before being sent to the analytics engine in the system. Further it is verified internally before it is extracted to the mandatory regulatory compliance reporting schemes like EU MRV and IMO DCS. By having this function in the system, data are verified already when they are received from the vessel and once a dataset needs to go to the official verifiers, it can be sent on demand.

By having an overview of the operational profile and being able to match this with targets and KPIs for the voyages sailed, the operations can be evaluated and continuously optimized both as voyages progress and as a post evaluation of the different voyages. Speed and consumption figures are always available and benchmarked towards commercial terms and internal targets in the company. Emission figures are included in this overview and updated and benchmarked against purchased credits and targets for compliance balances. By having an efficient performance monitoring system – like the VesOPS system – all operations are always in control and updated towards any targets included in the system.

 

 

Conclusions

The message in general for this pitch presentation is that operational efficiency is a keyword for vessel operators

The costs of operating a vessel will be more complex in the future. Besides the technical costs and the fuel costs, the emissions costs will now be an important factor in the operation costs. Both in the carbon trading scheme and in the penalty scheme where costs can be high. Still on an EU level but as IMO is catching up on Market Base Measures to lower emissions, the rule set will be rolled out worldwide.

By improving the efficiency of a vessel, reductions in emissions and compliance targets can be met. The efficiency improvements will further reduce the costs of operations – both on the fuel bill and on the costs of carbon emissions either in the EU ETS or Fuel EU systems. The alternative fuels, that have zero or less carbon content, are expensive and once switching to these fuels, the operational efficiency becomes even more important due to the costs of operating on these fuels.

We are experts in operational efficiency in VesOPS – call us for a discussion on how we can help you improve the efficiency of your vessels.

 

Picture from EMD 2024 at SIMAC in Svendborg