Internet of things adoption continues to increase as owners, operators and managers see the cost-saving and environmental benefits
During the Covid-19 pandemic, vessel operators recognised the benefits of internet of things (IoT) and remote services to reduce costs and emissions. These technologies will become more important as shipping tackles the next round of environmental challenges.
IMO adopted the first phase of shipping decarbonisation with its carbon intensity indicator (CII) scheme in June, opening a period of intense emissions and energy efficiency reporting.
These short-term goals to reduce the carbon intensity of the global shipping fleet by 2% per year from 2023 to 2026, by measuring and assessing emissions metrics on vessels greater than 5,000 gt, were adopted at the 76th meeting of the Maritime Environment Protection Committee.
Shipping company executives explained how IoT and measurement systems will be important for complying with CII reduction requirements during Riviera Maritime Media’s Vessel Optimisation Webinar Week.
During these webinars, Verband Deutscher Reeder technical advisor Sebastian Ebbing said the annual attained CII “will be rated against the required CII benchmark by flag state authorities”. These will need to be regularly measured and calculated.
He explained how IMO’s mandatory fuel oil data collection system for international shipping will be key to determining attained CII. Ships will be rated A to E depending on their carbon intensity. “Ships with a D rating for three consecutive years or an E rating for one year are required to take corrective actions to achieve the required CII,” he said.
Mr Ebbing said shipping companies need to calculate CII for their ships and use the information to reduce fuel consumption and expenditure, which makes this a commercial gain for owners.
“This should be a business strategy, not a regulatory burden,” Mr Ebbing said. “Companies can take some serious honey out of it if they focus on how to reduce carbon intensity and place climate protection within their strategies.”
Dorian LPG fleet performance manager Grzegorz Zboś said data management, storage and processing will be important for CII compliance and will improve the quality of ship operations. After calculating CII for each vessel, data analytics can be used to consider where improvements can be made.
Dorian LPG has started planning for CII. “We are preparing the data with a corporate solution to leverage CII and get a view of fleet performance for the future,” said Mr Zboś.
“It is a perfect storm for shipping, and we are preparing for that storm and what we will be going through in the future.”
Dorian LPG is investing in reliable IT infrastructure, to connect to other systems’ application programming interfaces (APIs), building data storage and processing systems. Mr Zboś said these are “fundamental for our daily deliveries, to calculate all necessary data and give us the visualisation we need”.
This enables it to monitor key performance indicators for vessels and the fleet. “This is how we look to get over the regulations and improve fleet and ship performance,” said Mr Zboś. “Investment will improve the quality of operations. Digitalisation is critical.”
It uses Vesper as a core processing system with APIs to receive and interpret daily IoT and report data, then to share calculations for Dorian LPG’s operational and regulatory requirements.
Different data sources are then fed into a business intelligence system. “This gives us the ability to deliver ad hoc business visualisations for the decision-making process,” said Mr Zboś. This is “a tool to provide specific analysis for our business”. Data and calculations can be set against predictions of future technical, regulatory and operational requirements for the fleet.
P&O Maritime Logistics head of IT Kris Vedat explained how IoT has brought considerable benefits and cost savings for its fleet of offshore and port support vessels and logistics ships. It has implemented IoT technology for remote monitoring and health assessments.
“We get insight into the maintenance and can move into real-time modelling with IoT,” said Mr Vedat.
The vessel owner uses IoT as an enabler for multiple purposes, including gaining an overall view of the health of all assets in the fleet and to identify issues with assets through an alert system.
“Through data analysis we get greater insight into vessel operations, safety and the health of our assets. We have transparency we have not had before,” said Mr Vedat.
Through IoT, P&O Maritime can view performance and condition information onshore and offshore and make “tangible costs savings. We can predict failures and avoid breakdowns and downtime,” he explained.
P&O Maritime worked with Baker Hughes to remotely monitor and manage engine lubricant oil to reduce costs. “By moving the lube oil maintenance to a condition-based model, vessels are saving US$22,000 per annum on lube oil,” said Mr Vedat.
“Moving to a predictive maintenance model allows us to identify catastrophic failures before they happen, such as a main engine failure, which can cost up to US$500,000 to replace. We can avoid costly downtime through maintenance.”
Through the Vitalyx lube oil application, P&O Maritime monitors water dilution, soot, glycol, fuel dilution, viscosity, saltwater dilution, metallic particles, temperature, density and dielectric.
Vitalyx assists in oil lifecycle performance optimisation. “This enables us to ensure the
lube oil operates within its lifecycle sweet spot,” said Mr Vedat. “That it is not changed before it becomes optimal, and not after it becomes a risk to the asset.”
Water dilution is measured as water can induce base oil oxidation, severely compromise additives, and interfere with oil film production, causing severe damage to an engine.
Measuring soot is important as an excess can lead to issues including increased viscosity, lower combustion efficiency and increased wear of key components.
Glycol contamination can result in wear rates 10-times greater than water contamination alone and can also be an indication of severe asset failure. Fuel can dilute the concentration of oil additives and their effectiveness, as well as being an indication of internal leakage.
Saltwater can cause significantly more issues than water. In most applications, the presence of saltwater indicates a compromised seal. Even a small amount of highly saline water can lead to catastrophic failure.
Microscopic metallic particles can lead to catastrophic failures in systems such as generators, engines or gearboxes. “Baker Hughes lubricant monitoring platform provides context and predictive models based on the specific application,” said Mr Vedat.
Density and dielectric sensing is performed using a single mechanical resonant sensor with capacitance measurement. Lubricant viscosity is an important indicator of a lubricant’s ability to protect a system from wear and tear.
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