THE SECOND series of trials completed by the Blue Visby Solution project (BVS) has returned favourable results, including demonstration of substantial greenhouse gas emissions savings.
The latest prototype trials involved 16 LPG tankers under charter by Marubeni Corporation, a Blue Visby Consortium member, across 40 voyages over a period of three months.
The BVS/Marubeni prototype trials were designed to test the BVS technology acting as a decision-support tool in a First Come First Served (FCFS) operational environment.
For the trials, BVS technology provided the necessary information and recommendations for the operator to decide whether or not to implement BVS, based on its own considerations, so as to reduce GHG emissions by mitigating the effects of the Sail Fast Then Wait (SFTW) operational practice.
BVS has been developed by a British/Finnish–led group known as the Blue Visby Consortium, and is aimed at eradicating the SFTW practice of ships that sail to their destination with utmost despatch, without regard to other ships or to the conditions at the destination.
Although it acknowledges the justifications behind the practice, BVS says it is responsible for approximately 20% of shipping’s carbon footprint.
The results from the first set of trials were released in May this year.
For the latest trials, BVS revealed that approximately 31 actionable recommendations for vessels to reduce speed were issued, with projected fuel and GHG savings of approximately 29% on average.
BVS reported the average figure was confirmed in the results from the vessels that followed the BVS recommendations, and the savings were delivered through speed reductions from an average speed of 13.6 knots, down to an average speed of 10.6 knots.
As well as substantial GHG emissions savings, BVS revealed that the trials demonstrated the value of BVS as a decision-support tool, including in cases where a commercial decision is taken not to reduce speed, or to reduce speed only for part of a voyage.
Moreover, the feasibility of individual ships using BVS to reduce GHG emissions in a FCFS environment was displayed, without suffering any commercial disadvantage, even in the absence of wider co-ordination or terminal involvement.
Haris Zografakis and Pekka Pakkanen, co-ordinators of the Blue Visby Consortium commented, “Over a period of several years, the Blue Visby Solution project has progressed iteratively through studies, simulations, virtual pilots to prototype trials”.
“The combined experience of two sets of prototype trials over a period of six months, with the invaluable support of Blue Visby Consortium members CBH Group and Marubeni Corporation, has demonstrated the feasibility of deploying the Blue Visby Solution in the two main operating environments in maritime trade: terminal stem and FCFS.”
Christian Wounlund, CEO of Blue Visby said, “These trials involved a fantastic team based in four countries, working on a 24/7 basis across time zones”.
“The organisation’s scaling up continues, and the entire team’s experience, expertise and geographical reach will support commercial deployment in the coming months.”
Kimmo Laaksonen, chief technology officer of Blue Visby, said the work of the research team during the past year has enabled BVS to use a wide range of new data and optimisation constraints, allowing it to solve some of the challenges present in a competitive operational environment with a limited number of participating ships.
As for what’s next, BVS stated, “The trade and commercial framework used in the two series of prototype trials with CBH Group and Marubeni Corporation align well with various segments of the dry and wet bulk trade. The experience and learnings of these two Prototype Trials will be scaled up and extended.”
