Analysis on 8,000+ TEU container vessel reveals 4% reduced fuel consumption
NAPA, global maritime software house, and ClassNK classification society announced that their comprehensive eco efficiency and operational optimization solution ClassNK-NAPA GREEN, has generated fuel savings of 3.9% on a “K” Line container vessel.
The software solution was tested in full scale sea trials in January 2014 aboard an 8,000+ TEU container ship operating on a standard Mediterranean/Europe route. The full ClassNK-NAPA GREEN suite of systems were utilized on the voyage, including speed, trim, and voyage optimization based on the ClassNK-NAPA GREEN Dynamic Performance Model, and analyzed against the captain’s voyage plan. Despite encountering heavy weather on multiple occasions over the course of the voyage, speed profile and voyage optimization reduced the fuel consumption by 2.7%, while a further 1.2% savings was attributed to optimum trim, taking the total reduction in fuel consumption from the trial to 3.8%.
While trim optimization was restricted on this voyage due to loading conditions, results from a full-scale trim optimization study, conducted during two Indian Ocean crossings aboard the vessel, indicated that trim optimization has the possibility to further save fuel up to 4%.
In addition it was found that the accuracy of Dynamic Performance Model – the self-learning component of ClassNK-NAPA GREEN – was extremely high. In terms of fuel consumption prediction the accuracy was as high as 99.6%, which is unprecedented in the industry.
Executive Vice President Esa Henttinen from NAPA:
“The results of ClassNK-NAPA GREEN’s full-scale voyage optimization trials mark a landmark in the development of operational efficiency software. If “K” Line can save 4% in fuel costs for one vessel alone then the potential savings across its entire fleet is significant. Although software solutions to optimize fuel consumption are nothing new, the differentiating factor for ClassNK-NAPA GREEN is the software’s Dynamic Performance Model. It tunes the ship specific performance model on a continuous basis to give very accurate, transparent and true performance statistics to improve voyage optimization, trim optimization and performance reporting with payback on investment realized within months. Full-scale proven bunker cost saving are significant and feedback to ship designs will improve newbuilds further. I thank NAPA’s partners “K” Line and ClassNK in helping support the entire maritime industry benefit from our collective work on full-scale verifications.“
Representative Director & Executive Vice President Yasushi Nakamura from ClassNK:
“The fuel savings revealed through the “K Line” ClassNK-NAPA GREEN sea trials demonstrate the incredible environmental and economic benefits that ship designers, operators and charterers can achieve with innovative software solutions like ClassNK-NAPA GREEN. After 18 months of development,to have achieved this amount of savings at this stage in the project is an exciting milestone of particular significance to the container sector, which operates at higher speeds and is therefore more sensitive to speed and trim optimization than slower vessels.“
Source: NAPA
