Part of running a maritime vessel is focusing on efficiency and cost reduction. Saving on fuel by bringing down overall usage is a crucial differentiator between breakeven and becoming profitable. Thankfully, Breezemarine offers several solutions to hit that goal and ensure environmental compliance.
Lowering A Vessel’s Fuel Consumption
There are multiple ways to ensure a ship doesn’t consume more fuel than necessary. Common practices include:
- Changing fuel filters regularly.
- Cleaning the hull to reduce friction.
- Planning to leverage the wind to one’s advantage.
- Cutting down on onboard weight.
These are all essential steps every ship owner and the operator will take before every trip. However, there’s much more to explore and reduce fuel consumption even further. During the voyage, captains should look out for large wakes – indicating a higher fuel consumption – and keep an eye on smoke signals. Avoiding blue, white, and black smoke is crucial, as these all indicate less-than-optimal efficiency. Moreover, using solar or wind energy rather than idling engines should never be overlooked.
Optimizing the ship is a crucial step in the process. Ship owners may opt for specific lubrication, hybrid energy systems, or propeller attachments. They are all viable options, and combining several approaches will often yield much greater fuel savings. It is possible to reduce fuel consumption by up to 50% or more with a few minor and relatively quick tweaks. Always explore the options at your disposal, and get in touch with a Breezemarine expert to set everything in motion!
Optimizing fuel consumption is about more than just cutting costs, although that will always be a primary benefit. Changes in IMO guidelines force the hand of ship owners and operators to ensure they meet stricter guidelines. Fuel oil has sulfur limits everyone must adhere to. These changes impact the overall price of shop fuel, making it even more worthwhile to look into every saving measure possible.
It is to everyone’s benefit to maintain a healthy fuel consumption ratio. However, there are other aspects to consider as well. Fuel consumption is more than burning and filling the fuel tank back up.
Image source: marine-digital.com
Automating Fuel Consumption Monitoring
Breezemarine Group has plenty of expertise in equipping vessels with a Fuel Consumption Monitoring system. The universal tool lets crew and operators automatically control bunkering, fuel consumption, and fuel levels. Moreover, our solution analyzes the ship’s overall efficiency and automatically prepares the necessary MRV reports. These reports also identify any increased fuel consumption and help control CO2 emissions.
Image: Breezemarine FCM system.
Per the newly updated IMO guidelines, monitoring CO2 exhaust gases has become more than a trivial matter. It is a thorough process every ship needs to undergo to be compliant. Thankfully, Breezemarine’s solution analyzes everything, including the main engines, bunkering line, propeller shaft, viscometer, valve control, etc. Data is sent back to the office, and our solution is compatible with existing equipment with automatic process control systems.