Vessel Efficiency Takes Center Stage

 

At this year's SMM, green fuels took a prominent place, but the stars of the show were efficiency measures - the less glamorous but nonetheless important steps that move shipping towards a cleaner future. These are accessible changes, like reduced operating speed, optimal weather routing, just-in-time arrival, efficient hydrodynamic design, premium hull coatings, shaft generators and other simple interventions. (Wind-assisted propulsion and air lubrication received plenty of mentions as well, though at the higher end of the capex spectrum.)

While many operators would be happy to go "all the way to zero" with methanol or ammonia, it has become clear that these fuels will not be ready at scale for most players anytime soon. Even the most prominent name in shipping has quietly begun looking at LNG as an alternative to methanol, and smaller operators are taking a cue. "The cow with the biggest bell leads the herd," said one fuels executive wryly.

The fuel supply challenge has knock-on effects for owners and suppliers who have been working hard to prepare. For example, Rolls Royce MTU’s executives acknowledge that they have taken a risk in investing in a methanol engine: their new model will be ready years before the fuel supply arrives, and at present, owners do not have a business reason to buy it.

"At the moment, I have 20 people asking me, 'Can we do methanol? Because I want to do it.' But at the moment, there's not a business case," says Denise Kurtulus, Vice President Global Marine at MTU. "We need the politicians around the world to create regulatory support in order to incentivize alternative fuels. As long as diesel is the cheapest fuel you can get, why should someone pick methanol?"

Given this reality, vessel efficiency provides a viable near-term option to reduce emissions - and it lays the groundwork for later changes. When green fuels do come, maritime, aviation and road transport will all be competing for the same finite global supply, and shipping will benefit from vessels that consume as little as possible. This is already driving investment choices in container shipping, says ABS' global container sector lead, Christoph Rasewsky.

"It's clear to all of us that carbon-neutral fuels will be much more expensive, and this is reflected in the new ship design. There is a much higher drive towards energy saving and more efficient hull shapes," Rasewsky says. "Efficient bow shapes are one example, as well as wind shields, which have been specified on all newbuild container ship orders the last few months. Ships are becoming beamier for more TEU capacity, and twisted leading edge rudders and twisted fin systems have become standard. You cannot afford to build a container ship now without energy saving devices."

Efficiency methods vary between vessel classes, as each ship has a unique role. For example, in the LNG carrier segment, Chevron is working with MOL to try out air lubrication and spark-ignition LNG propulsion on its chartered-in fleet. It is also planning to test out MOL's Wind Challenger wind-assisted propulsion system on a newbuild LNG carrier scheduled for delivery in 2026.

As a supplier, Chevron also plays a role in making the green transition happen for other operators. Its marine lubricants team is formulating lube oils for methanol, hydrogen and ammonia, and its marine fuels team is delivering sustainable biofuel options based on waste cooking oil reduce the carbon footprint of existing ships, without requiring any engine modifications, and Chevron is developing source feedstocks from multiple countries.

Shell Marine's fuel supply business is focused on LNG and bio-LNG as cost-competitive alternative fuels. Marcus Schaerer, the firm's GM of technical services and marine, says that Shell is ready to support owners before and after the green transition with advanced oil sample monitoring, which Schaerer likens to a "blood test" for engine health. It is augmenting its traditional tests with AI-enabled analysis of crew-sourced inspection data, based on data-collection techniques it developed during the pandemic.

Digital optimization

Digitalization plays a big role in getting the most out of each drop of fuel. Digitally-enabled route planning can help the operator avoid bad weather and pick just the right speed to arrive at just the right time, saving fuel. 

"If you optimize your route for your specific vessel and the expected weather, you could get fuel savings in the neighborhood of 10 percent," says Panos Theodossopoulos, CEO of ship analytics company Metis. "Weather providers and weather services offer a weather-safe route, but are not necessarily optimizing for speed based on the condition of your vessel itself."

With digital tracking and monitoring, it is possible to produce better estimates of how well each technical or operational intervention is working, says Theodossopoulos. High-frequency data also helps researchers better understand the impact of different green interventions, and Metis is actively involved in supporting research as well. The firm is working with Laskaridis Shipping to provide detailed vessel performance data to the Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES), which will help the center develop its modeling tools for decarbonization strategies. 

Centralizing and exchanging data will also be essential to maximizing efficiency.

To enable better and easier usage of ship data, Bureau Veritas has launched a new platform called MOVE, a smart "hub" that is designed to reduce the complexity of digitalization for shipowners. MOVE’s applications produce dashboards to support vessel and fleet compliance, as well as performance, built with the fleet manager in mind. It can be tailored to the needs of each ship-owning client, says Laurent Hentges, Vice President, Digital Solutions & Transformation, Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore.

Using vessel data derived from a direct connection to the client's digital systems, one of MOVE’s applications enables end-to-end CO2 emission tracking and verification, as well as CII and other compliance indicators calculations. BV plans to expand MOVE with new applications (and partner companies' application modules) as time goes on. "Industry is getting to a point of maturity in the use of ship data and is growing accustomed to the idea of digitized solutions," says Hentges. "Class can play a role in creating a common definition of data and protocols for sharing it."