By
Alex Smith |
Marine data firm GreenSteam has designed a new performance platform for ferry operator DFDS, to reduce emissions and fuel usage across the fleet.
The new platform will see a digital performance model created for each vessel, based on 13 different variables concerning ship performance and environmental conditions. Artificial intelligence technologies will then identify the impact each factor has on fuel usage, with will then be converted into operational recommendations while the crew is in transit.
The first service to be rolled out using the new performance platform is the dynamic trim optimiser (DTO). DTO captures performance data from onboard sensors and integrates with the vessel’s digital model to calculate optimal trim settings, which GreenSteam says will reduce fuel consumption by up to 6 per cent. Further solutions will be rolled out as they are developed by GreenSteam.
“This partnership signifies the next step in our work with DFDS to deliver long term and widespread benefits to their operations,” said Shaun Gray, executive chairman for GreenSteam. “As DFDS has recognised, reducing emissions doesn’t have to be at the cost of profitability – and in fact, both can be achieved and enhanced with machine-learning driven optimisation of vessel operations.”
The partnership will contribute to DFDS’s commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25-35 per cent over the next 10 years. The two companies have already worked together over the past five years to install performance optimisation systems on 18 vessels.
“After trialling and testing GreenSteam over many years, we have been impressed by the reduction in fuel consumption that can be achieved by applying machine learning to optimise even one aspect of vessel operations,” said Jacob Pederson, head of projects and implementation at DFDS. “We are committed to driving down our greenhouse gas emissions across the fleet, while continuing to provide our award-winning service.”
The rollout of the hardware across DFDS’s fleet will begin in the last quarter of 2020 and will continue into early 2021.