While the voting procedure for the 2019 GREEN4SEA Awards is open, Mr. Hiroshi Uehara, Deputy General Manager, Technology Innovation Unit, Smart Shipping Division, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd shares best practices to comply with environmental regulations citing his company’s initiatives, for which MOL has been shortlisted in the ‘Dry Bulk Operator’ category among other distinguished nominees. Mr. Uehara concludes that all shipping companies have a social obligation to solve environmental issues, thus innovative steps are needed to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and biodiversity challenges.
SAFETY4SEA: Your organization has been shortlisted for the 2019 GREEN4SEA Awards in the ‘Dry Bulk Operator’ category alongside a number of other distinguished nominees. What would you like to share with industry’s stakeholders with respect to this development?
Hiroshi Uehara: NAPA Fleet Intelligence combines NAPA’s naval architectural expertise and proprietary data modelling with open source data and MOL’s own reports to produce industry-leading analytics and actionable insights with zero onboard installation. Through its use of NAPA Fleet Intelligence, MOL will receive fleet-wide hull performance analysis, voyage-by-voyage performance reports, and voyage planning that’s entirely cloud-based. This will allow MOL to further enhance its business efficiency by planning its fleet operations with better understanding of individual ship performance, more accurate fuel consumption estimates, and greater clarity on arrival times and voyage duration. NAPA’s voyage reporting software is the first to use the data from noon-reports as well as remote analytics to precisely categorise fuel use into individual categories such as calm sea consumption. It can also identify the causes of increased fuel use, including effects of environmental conditions, or hull fouling. The noon-reports are further combined with remote-sensed data such as AIS, chart data and environmental data and processed through algorithms and hydrodynamic calculations developed by NAPA’s experts that are based on detailed ship performance models for each vessel type.
S4S: When it comes to tackling the green challenges around the shipping sector, what are the core priorities on your agenda?
H.U.: One of our core priority is to participate in projects to build vessels that run on alternative fuels such as LNG and supply alternative fuels.
S4S: Which best practices would you recommend from your perspective to enhance green performance onboard and ashore?
H.U.: One of our recommended best practices is to install the Propeller Boss Cap Fins (PBCF) which is a device for propeller efficiency improvement developed by the corporate group of MOL. The PBCF feature can recover energy loss of Propeller Hub Vortex in the propeller backward flow and save fuel consumption by 5% operating at the same speed, or boost speed by 2% with the same fuel consumption.
S4S: Do you have any new projects on the pipeline and/or plans that you would like to share with the rest of the industry?
H.U.: Launching of the “FOCUS” Project whch is a collaborative innovation transcending business categories; ICT-based, data-driven project which aims at safer operation and cleaner environment.
S4S: What is your key message to the industry for a more sustainable future of shipping?
H.U.: Shipping companies are responsible for undertaking the marine transportation vital to the infrastructure underpinning people’s daily lives worldwide. Meanwhile, the effectuation of the Paris Agreement on climate control has unified efforts by the international community to mitigate global warming. With this in mind, MOL believes that it has a social obligation to take innovative steps to help solve environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and biodiversity impediments.
You may cast your vote for MOL at 2019 GREEN4SEA Awards dedicated webpage till 22nd of February 2019!
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and not necessarily those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
