Information-Gathering: The Route To Cleaner Ships

Minimising harmful gas emissions from ships needs to be made an urgent priority, BMT SeaTech Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, warned today.

With the European Parliament having announced its new EU marine fuel directive on the sulphur content of marine fuels and the IMO planning rules to cut sulphur in fuels next year, the industry is being steered towards a greener future. But BMT believes that more could be done to gather vital information needed to minimise the volume of emissions in the first place.

Ships have become the single biggest source of Sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the EU, with the maritime sector lagging behind land-based industry in environmental improvement. SO2 is an air pollutant which acidifies lake and forest ecosystems and harms human health.

"One reason why the industry is lagging behind its industrial counterparts is that it has failed to capture sufficient data and therefore knowledge to optimise vessel performance and thereby minimise emissions at source," said Gwynne Lewis, Managing Director, BMT SeaTech. "In order for a ship operator to improve a vessel's fuel efficiency and therefore reduce emissions, he must first have an understanding of the vessel's current performance trend over time. For vessels on long-term time charter such as tankers, dry bulk carriers and LNG carriers, it is particularly important to track these changes to identify any deterioration in performance. A monitoring or measurement process is vital."

BMT's unique SMARTPOWER tool offers real-time ship performance monitoring and analysis. The system continuously records ship speed, fuel consumption, shaft power torque and engine RPM together with navigational and environmental parameters in order to present performance trends over time. The results are compared against ship's trials data.

By providing the information to assess the vessel's instantaneous performance and trend over time, SMARTPOWER can help improve overall operating efficiency by assisting the ship's master in reducing fuel consumption, ensuring timely engine repair, optimising periods between hull and propeller cleaning and assessing alternative paint strategies. All of which saves fuel and reduces emissions.

Mr Lewis continued: "These are exactly the kinds of data required for optimising performance. We believe that the logical link between improved performance and reduced emissions could be acknowledged more by the industry. Cutting acceptable levels of sulphur in fuel as the EU and IMO are doing is one obvious route but it is not the only path to greener ships."

Kerstin Meyer, Air Pollution Policy Officer for the European Environment Bureau, was quoted recently (http://www.eubusiness.com/topics/Environ/ships.2005-04-14 as calling the European Parliament's new directive "a wasted chance for cleaner air in Europe," saying that "ship emissions could be reduced much further at very low cost."

Mr Lewis concluded: "Quite simply, improving efficiency and performance will reduce air emissions - at little or no net cost to industry. In fact, a tool such as SMARTPOWER is designed to deliver tangible cost benefits within a short period through reduced consumption and optimisation of speed through the water."