Marine industry promotes energy efficiency with ICT solutions

Marine industry is one of the leading Cleantech branches in Finland. Sustainable technologies offer great business potential for the industry and are of great importance. The competence of the Finnish marine industry is used to develop high-tech solutions to promote clean maritime transport and the sustainable utilization of the ocean resources.

Maritime transport is the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient transport mode

Reduction of sulphur-, nitrogen- and carbon dioxide emissions is a necessity for environmentally friendly operations. The new rules of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are also going to require this. In addition the EEDI –Energy efficiency index is setting requirements for energy efficient operations of new ships. The marine industry develops solutions for environmentally friendly maritime transport. For instance fuel saving ship concepts, operation optimization software, fluid dynamics simulations and new energy solutions reduce the energy consumption of maritime transport. Several Finnish high-tech results have already been achieved, such as Deltamarin’s B.Delta – energy efficient cargo ship concepts, LNG cruise ferry Viking Grace built by Meyer Turku Shipyard, NAPA’s optimization tools and ABB’s EMMA –energy management system. These are international top references of the branch.

ICT solutions have significant role in energy efficiency development

The significance of ICT is increasing also in the marine industry. The most energy efficient solutions can be found through simulation. With optimization and monitoring tools the ship operations can be tracked and the energy consumption reduced.

Energy efficiency and ICT solutions are continuously developed in the new development projects. Ship Energy Efficiency Technologies – a project in Tekes’ Arctic Seas –program is an example of large collateral project. The participants are leading companies and research organizations of the branch: Aalto University, ABB Ltd, Aker Arctic Technology Ltd, Alfa Laval Aalborg Ltd, Deltamarin Ltd and VTT Technical Research Centre Of Finland Ltd. The project is developing energy saving technologies for several ship types. The goal is to improve energy efficiency especially in arctic seafaring. Deltamarin continues to utilize and to further develop together with VTT and ABB in the FIMECC –SHOK program previously developed simulation tool. The goal is to model the savings of new energy saving equipment and processes in case vessels by taking into account the real operational conditions.

Marine industry is active in the Tekes’ Arctic Seas –program. The industry association of the branch, Finnish Marine Industries, supports companies in the project planning and application processes for the Arctic Seas -program. In addition to environmental technology, the main themes for the year are Internet of Things and productivity development. Marine industry is proud to be a forerunner of clean technology.