The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) has released a white paper that focuses on ship energy efficiency and provides ship owners and operators with information on how to evaluate the potential investments that can be gained from efficiency measures and technologies.
The white paper outlines the energy losses that naturally occur such as from hull friction, and the opportunities that there are for savings by using different technologies and strategies. It presents the latest energy efficiency measures that are available to the industry, such as hull coatings and optimisation techniques, propellers, renewable energy technologies, mechanical and electrical systems, including fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and operational practises such as fuel consumption monitoring, speed optimisation and weather routing.
The paper states that by improving energy efficiency on marine vessels, fuel consumption, operating costs and emissions can all be reduced, while installing technologies to aid in the improvement of energy efficiency can also help ship owners to meet the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) that requires a 30% improvement in efficiency for newbuild ships by 2025 over an established baseline.
Each technology or strategy is described and evaluated in detail, considering the potential for fuel savings, how it works, its applicability to different ship types including newbuilds and retrofits, the level of technology development and the relative lifecycle cost. This enables ship owners and operators to understand the cost-benefit analysis and the best investment option for improving energy efficiency of their ships, complying with the EEDI and gaining the best return-on-investment.
The white paper was developed through the Ship Operations Cooperative Program (SOCP) with funding from MARAD’s Maritime Environmental and Technical Assistance Program.
The white paper can be accessed by clicking here.
Image: Typical energy losses on a large vessel, courtesy of Ship Operations Cooperative Program Energy Efficiency White Paper
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