ship efficiency the potential Vessel performance management lubricants the issue FATHOM INSIGHT

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1 ship efficiency EDITION 1. MARCH 2014 the insight the potential of Big data spotlight: Vessel performance management lubricants forcing the issue

2 The only magazine dedicated to strategies and solutions to improve ship efficiency Contacts For further information on Ship Efficiency: The Insight please contact the team: Subscriptions: James Barth Advertising/Sponsorship: Michelle Richards Editorial: Ben Roberts Events: Cara Bainton Coming march 2014 Advertising Opportunites Available

3 Ship Efficiency: The Insight is the only periodical dedicated to the most up-to-date information in implementing and improving the efficiency of ship owners and managers operations. Contents Breaking Boundaries... Interview with efficiency leader. Blue Skies... Driving Technological Innovation from Low Carbon Shipping Scenarios. Feature Focus... Big Data. The future of shipping will be fuelled by data- big data. What is this and how can it be applied to advantage within the shipping industry? TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHTS Five different in-depth profiles of specfic technology solutions. This Issue Feature Focus... Vessel Performance Management. From the first priciples of fuel measurement to use of integrated systems to measure mutiple parameters. What are the range of options and what do they bring to the efficiency table? insights Ship Design... Whole of ship designs, research insight, EEDI. regular sections Propulsion... Auxillary power, Hybrid shaft power and low loss concepts. Fuels and Emissions... Cylinder Oils- where are we now. Forcing the Issue: Enivironmental Lubricants and the VGP. Electronics and Software... Weather Routing, voyage optimisation, integrated systems. Strategies- Operational and technological... Hull Coatings and Vessel Performance. Hull Cleaning. The Last Word... Contributed blog piece. join us on LinkedIn Follow

4 The Big Data Revolution Big data is one of the business buzzwords of the last year breaking through into mainstream awareness quite comprehensively. But what is big data and how can it be used within the maritime field? What is big data? The word data can refer to almost anything and has existed as a concept for nearly as long as humanity. It is the process of collecting facts and statistics for reference or analysis. Big data however is a much newer term and comes about by the rapid evolution of the digital age. It is an encompassing phrase that conceptualises massive volumes of data, much larger than traditional database and software techniques to process. Advances in computing means it is not just possible to generate huge amounts of data, but to analyse specific sets in order to derive conclusions that are hidden within. To put this in to context, from the beginning of recorded time until 2003, humans had created in total an estimated 5 exabytes (5 billion gigabytes) of data. The same amount is now being created every two days. To put this into perspective, an exabyte is above 2.5 million terabytes and a terabyte can contain, for example enough CD-quality music to play continually 24hours a day for two and a half months. To give some real world examples of big data consider the global supermarket chain that collects 70 million refrigerator-related data points analysing them to keep better tabs on performance, gauge when the machines might need to be serviced and do more proactive maintenance to cut down on energy costs. Or how about the carefully placed advertisements and recommendations from internet stores based on your buying and browsing patterns.? Or airlines using competitor pricing, demand analysis and live booking to alter the price of millions of tickets daily? The list is infinite. Big data analysis can be imagined as a form of mining, data mining to be precise. In the best scenario it may be that the vast majoirty of the data collected is useful, or on the other hand there may only be a small number of gems within the data set that are required. Either way the full data set must be sifted through by the computer in order to dig out the hidden chunks of knowledge which would otherwise be invisible.

5 The Big Data Revolution What does this mean for the shipping industry? We are already seeing a real shift towards more automation within shipping operations with data crunching software at the heart of most progressions. The advances in lower costs satellite communications within the maritime industry has opened the door for greater transfer of data to and from ships and shore and ship to ship. Taking this all the way, it is possible to envisage a scenario where the ships of the future are sentient; self-correcting and diagnostic with the possibility of being completely remote-controlled via data transfer to a centralised location shore side. The Here and Now Ships, particularly new vessels, are equipped with multitudes of sensors, software and satellite communications equipment that provide flows of ship performance and condition data that can be used to operate and maintain equipment at a higher performance levels and lower cost. With the correct data and information monitoring tools, a ship can produce and process upwards of 2 billion data points during a month. Over an entire fleet these data points can reach up to and in excess of a trillion per year. This is why the need for innovative software that can ease the burden on individuals and ensure the vast array of data points can be turned into actionable information is a hot topic within the industry. Not only is the aspect of processing and storing the data imperative, the communication and transfer of the data back to the shore is of growing importance too. With the increase in sensors, gauges and monitoring and indeed a growing number of systems and processes onboard a ship, it is now possible for an individual or small team to ensure all on board systems of a vessel or fleet are running to their optimum requirements from the comfort of the bridge or even headquarters. These integrated systems can result in substantial fuel savings, reduction in maintenance and repair costs, and greater assurance of environmental compliance. In this feature we explore some of the key applications at the forefront of maritime efficiency that big data has enabled. full article to appear in March edition of Ship Efficiency: The Insight

6 Electronics & software Natural efficiency We may have moved away from the days of pure sail power but the meteorological conditions can have a significant impact in today s world of powerful engines. Enviromental Parameters In Voyage Optimisation The IMO Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) identifies the planning and execution of voyages as key methods for improving fuel consumption with weather routeing having a high potential for increasing efficiency on specific routes. Today, weather routing is a sophisticated science based on complex analysis of oceanographic data-including ocean currents, tides, sea surface temperatures and wave forecasts- as well as weather conditions and importantly the vessel and voyage parameters. Software is now widely available that combines both logistical planning with weather data to ensure that ships sail the safest and most efficient route given the weather it is likely to encounter. The use of this data is now an integral part of fleet management and passage planning systems in most shipping operations. With the rise in the price of fuel, and recent legislation concerning emissions, causing a boom in technology designed to improve the efficiency of a voyage, these systems really must take into account the weather to be effective. The weather (including ocean currents) is said to be the single biggest factor that affects the performance of ships at sea. A trim optimisation system is of little use if the vessel is pounding into a 20 meter swell. Case Study Weather Routing Applied Weather Technology is one of the industry experts in weather routing. To demonstrate the impact weather routing can have they have shared a real life example from their files. During early January of this year, the North Atlantic suffered a storm which, at its peak, wave heights of up to 20 meters.

7 Electronics & software The diagram below shows the intended route of the Captain for a route from eastern England to the Gulf of Mexico going via the English Channel- a route that under other circumstances could be ideal however with the current conditions would take the vessel directly through the centre of the storm. > Through weather routing an alternative northern route was recommended and indeed followed. Whilst the route may have been longer in fact, at a minimum, it was calculated that there was a 15% reduction in fuel consumption avoiding the 15 meter waves that prevailed off the English Channel at the time. ENSEMBLE FORECASTS Enviromental Parameters In Voyage Optimisation Another benefit of weather routing can be confidence in setting speeds for just in time arrival. It is well known that slower speeds can have a significant impact on fuel conservation and why waste fuel on a vessel going full steam ahead only to arrive ahead of schedule. Any weather forecast is subject to error. They are created by estimating the current state of the atmosphere using observations, and then calculating how this state will evolve in time using a numerical weather prediction computer model. As the atmosphere is a chaotic system, very small errors in its initial state can lead to large errors in the forecast- this is why a completely accurate forecast can never been given. Ensemble forecasts mean that instead of running just a single forecast, the computer model runs a number of times from slightly different starting conditions. The complete set of forecasts is referred to as the ensemble, and individual forecasts within it as ensemble members. When it comes to vessel route planning, ensemble forecasts can then be used to give confidence factors on how likely it will be for a vessel to arrive at the scheduled time based on a set speed. Example A In this example, ensemble forecasts show a relatively small spread of estimated speed required to reach the port by the targeted time.

8 Electronics & software 84% of the ensemble forecasts support a power of 16 knots whilst just 14% support a marginally higher speed. Therefore there can be a fairly high confidence on a speed of 16 knots. In this other example of a trans-atlantic westbound voyage, there is a more significant spread in the forecast results, and therefore, less confidence that the slowest speed can achieve the desired arrival time. In this instance the ship operator may prefer to choose a slightly higher speed to build more of a buffer in. All aboard Oceanographic data is gaining momentum as a key component of voyage optimisation. It can be set up quickly with little more than a broadband connection and some technical integration work to allow the data to be downloaded direct to onboard systems, providing efficiency benefits for relatively little cost. tides of change A small company in Tasmania (Australia) claims to be the first company to offer integrated vessel speed and route optimisation through looking at combined tidal and non-tidal (ocean) current data. Tidetech managing director Penny Haire says the company s data is created and compiled by leading oceanographers who develop data sets in-house and evaluate existing data from many global sources including observations, satellites, government agencies, and academic institutes. We convert highly complex data into applicable visualisations that can be integrated into navigation and optimisation systems and downloaded via broadband. said Haire. In order to prove the science and delivery methods of environmental data for voyage optimisation, Tidetech engaged in several trials with some major companies including Carnival Cruise Lines and NAPA, in addition to running many detailed simulations. A simulation for an 8000 TEU vessel transiting the English Channel, for example, shows that correctly timing the vessel s arrival at the entrance to the channel can achieve a best-case transit 32 minutes faster (steaming at 19 knots) than the worst-case transit (at 21 knots). This is a difference of approximately 35.8 tons of bunkerage and a potential emissions reduction of tons of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide calculated at 3.2 tons per ton of fuel). A study in speed optimisation completed for Brittany Ferries showed a 60-minute benefit in transit time on the Brittany to Portsmouth route by optimising time and speed with tides. The route optimisation trial with Carnival Cruise Lines was conducted aboard six vessels steaming on routes in the Gulf Stream around Florida. The outcome was between one and five per cent reductions in bunker consumption per ship.

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10 Electronics & software improving ship operating efficiency Over the past decade, an increasingly wide and sophisticated array of tools have become available for optimising the operational performance of ships. However quantifying true ship performance is a very complex, if not impossible, task as there are numerous contributing factors interacting with each other which can be seen in figure 1. Figure 1 Ship are subjected to wind, waves and currents plus overtime the condition of the engine, hull and propeller all can deteriorate. All of the factors reduce their overall efficiency. Not only this, the effects of changing environmental and loading conditions (draft and trim) are interrelated, making it difficult to isolate the causes. Traditional methods of monitoring performance largely rely on manual data from logs such as ship speed, horsepower, propeller rpm, slip and fuel consumption. These manual measurements only indicate really significant efficiency changes due to the high percentage of inaccuracy. Dr. Henry Chen, currently employed as Chief Naval Architect at Jeppesen Marine, has been studying- and solving- this problem for many years. He explains that a performance monitoring system must in fact identify the degradation in ship efficiency and translate this trend or performance metrics into recommendations for improving overall fuel efficiency. Therefore, before addressing the question of how to improve ship efficiency, one must properly define efficiency and establish a reasonable benchmark as the basis for comparison. See Box1. for further information on this. During the ship design phase, engine, propeller, hull and propulsive efficiencies are estimated and optimised for a specific size, service speed and vessel type. Although sea the performance of the entire ship is then confirmed during sea trials and accepted by the shipowner, it is accepted that fuel efficiency will drop form that of the sea trials.

11 Electronics & software Software for the job In fact, the specific fuel consumption at various power outputs should not change compared to the test results, unless the engine is out of tune or the quality and calorific value of the fuel are in question. As such, specific fuel consumption is a good metric to use in detecting degradations in engine efficiency. On the other hand, trying to separate the effects of hull fouling, propeller roughness, wind, waves, and draft/trim on ship performance is much more complex and requires extensive instrumentation. There are certainly now many systems that aim to do just this. Dr Chen puts forward that the most cost-effective approach is to take an aggregate measurement and compare it with a series of established benchmarks based on model tests, theoretical calculations or past records taken at the time when the hull was clean. He says that by doing this it becomes more interesting to detect the trends over time rather than the quantitative values. By introducing an Operational Efficiency Benchmark (see Box1) you can then measure for reduction in performance attributable to hull fouling. Operational efficiency is an aggregate measure of ship performance at a certain speed and draft/trim, corrected for wind, waves, and current. By plotting the same metric across the entire speed range and loading conditions over time it can show the trend in performance degradation since hull fouling would affect the ship performance under all these conditions. To evaluate the effectiveness of weather routing and speed management, a voyage efficiency benchmark can be used- another aggregate measure of ship performance for a particular passage. There are indeed a plethora of systems on offer that can measure, analyse and advise owners on the efficiency. These start from very simple systems relying on flow meters and shaft power meters right though to systems that analyses conditions in real time advising suggested operation as the vessel makes its passage. In Dr Chen s opinion a combination approach is best. By combining customized ship performance models with optimization software, such as Jeppesen s Voyage and Vessel Optimization Solution (VVOS), owners and operators get highly accurate information to assist in moving closer to an optimized overall voyage performance. For many operators, it is a careful balance between the advantages and accuracy of the systems with investment cost. With costs ranging from the lower $10-20,000 right through to far more substantial $ ,000 there is a great variety on offer. Box 1 Efficiencies Engine Efficiency = Delivered HP / Fuel Consumed Propeller Efficiency = Thrust HP / Delivered HP Hull Efficiency = Effective HP / Thrust HP Propulsive Efficiency = Engine x Propeller x Hull Operational Efficiency Benchmark Operational efficiency = Actual Tonnes per Mile / Baseline Tonnes per Mile Benchmarking Voyage Efficiency Voyage efficiency = Actual Consumed / Optimal Consumed for the Same Loading and Schedule Since weather, current, ship loading conditions and schedule requirements are different for each passage, it is necessary to normalise the performance to the best scenario one could achieve for the same departure and arrival times, as well as loading and environmental conditions during the same period.