”Clean Shipping is a Rew Achievement”

Aware of the focus on technology as a driver for sustainable shipping, head technical department and fleet manager Erik Zwijghuizen of MF Shipping shares what he thinks is the main factor for energy efficient steaming: the crew “Awareness is crucial. A crew that has fuel efficient and sustainable operation in their hearts and minds, will accomplish most fuel savings.”

“We have achieved a 50 per cent fuel reduction on some of our ships”, Zwijghuizen claims. “For the most, we accomplished these huge savings by lowering the rotation speed of the main engines aboard the ships. However, to cut fuel cost in half, a culmination of efforts is needed. Engine mappings need to be adjusted to get the best fuel to power ratio with lower RPM, the propeller pitch needs to be adjusted to achieve the most efficient thrust at the given engine speed and hull resistance and sailing plans need to be thoroughly examined and worked out in different scenarios considering weather forecasts to achieve the most efficient passage. Most of all though we need to work with sailors who are also dedicated to getting their cargo to the port of destination at the lowest possible fuel cost and thus least emissions.”

Light sensors

“We work hard to raise crew awareness on environmentally sound sailing. We organise seminars on efficient energy management at our main office in Farmsum, the Netherlands, as well as in Manila, the Philippines, and the Russian cities of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. A lot of times, saving energy can be the result of adding up a lot of small steps: we train crew to check if they have turned off the light when they leave a working area on board and aboard newly built vessels we install LED lighting and sensors that automatically switch off the light when nobody is in the room, but also automatically switch on when somebody enters. A bigger step is getting the crew to actively monitor the energy demand and to see if this can be produced by engaging only one generator. Thus, the second generator can be shut off a lot of times. To further save on emissions, we have equipped dry cargo vessels with shore energy installations, so no generators need to run at all when docked.”

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Ambassadors

In their role as ship management company, MF Shipping is not the owner of the vessels they operate. Yet, having the overview of daily operations aboard, they come up with well-documented proposals towards ship owners to make investments that may improve ship efficiency and thereby cut cost and gain profit. Currently, the company has 57 vessels for which they manage crew, maintenance and bookkeeping. 32 of these vessels are under full management, meaning all logistics are done at MF Shipping. Some owners are shipping companies like Erik Thun AB and Thun Tankers, Ahlmark or Silverburn Shipping, while also owner-captains trust MF Shipping with planning and crew logistics.

When a ship owner is looking for a new vessel, MF Shipping also acts as a project manager, advising on the design briefs and coordinating during construction. Client gratification is flawless operation at low cost of ownership, which goes together well with sustainable and responsible entrepreneurship.

No 5 MbH Augustus 2014.jpg 26 1Having a happy workforce of sailors, investing in their education, getting them motivated to perform on the front lines of their profession and teaching these seamen how taking care of the environment improves the working space both in the present and the future. Being an Oxfam Novib ambassador, member of the World Ocean Council and buyer of green electricity at the main office, also support company goals.

Excess power

“As we do not own the vessels, we deal with ships as they are: the hull and the engine are given facts. Yet, we encourage crew to sail at the lowest possible fuel consumption. It reminds me of what I was experiencing when doing inspections. I went down to the engine room and noticed multiple generators were running whilst power demand was low at that time, one generator should have been more than sufficient. So I asked the engine room crew to shut down the second generator, which they eventually did with some degree of reluctance. Yet, as I boarded the main deck for further inspections, I already heard the surplus generator starting again. Sailors have been used to running their generators and having enough power at all times. By then, but this is a long time ago, it was not easy to convince my colleagues that saving fuel and saving emissions was a sensible thing to do.”

Improve numbers

Things have changed. “Today, we make it a sport to achieve the most nautical miles out of a ton of diesel oil. Our trading area is mostly north-western Europe, so we are restricted to the maximum of 0.1 per cent of sulphur in our emission gasses as of 1 January 2015. Converting to LNG is an option, but as we are mostly in short sea shipping with a lot of different harbours, we have the problem that the LNG bunkering possibilities are still limited. A scrubber installation is quite expensive so it is hard to earn back the investment on the size of ships we operate. That is why most of our vessels are prepared for running on diesel oil. Even before IMO introduced the SEEMP – Ship Energy Efficiency Management Programme – in 2013, we invited the American company Alaris to monitor the energy use aboard some of our vessels. Their researchers sailed with us for two months and came up with detailed insight in fuel consumption during different trips. The result is an EEOI: Energy Efficiency Operational Index -a number that indicates CO, emissions per ton of carried cargo over a mile. This is a number; we need to do something with that number, namely trying to improve on that number. That is something we try to get the crew focussed on. Safety comes before SEEMP, but if we can save on emissions and fuel by not running excess generators, we will. One of our captains recently suggested: ‘When we take pilots on board for manoeuvring, why don’t we run the engines at reduced rpm?’ Excellent! It shows awareness is blooming and leads to more savings throughout fleet operation.”

Super eco

Advanced efficient naval architecture and ship design also help. Zwijghuizen: “The two newest vessels in our fleet, M.V. Helge and M.V. Alice, both built in 2013 at Ferus Smit Shipyard, have improved hulls. The bulbs and the stern sections are hydrodynamically improved for efficient steaming. They take more cargo, sail faster and have less engine power installed. Both ships sail at eco speed of 9.5 knots, consuming only 4.5 tons of diesel fuel per day.”

Hans Buitelaar