ECO-Assistant Receives Lloyd’s List Asia Award (Singapore)

The trim optimisation software tool ECO-Assistant, has won the Environment Award at the Lloyd’s List Asia Awards 2012. Developed by FutureShip, the maritime consulting arm of classification society Germanischer Lloyd (GL), the award celebrated ECO-Assistant’s instant effect in reducing the fuel consumption and environmental impact of a vessel.

“We are honoured to receive the award, which is another indicator that the maritime industry recognises and appreciates GL’s longstanding commitment to reducing bunker consumption for the shipping industry,” said Mr. Steen Lund, Executive Vice President and Regional Manager of GL Maritime Services Asia/Pacific at the award ceremony held in Singapore.

Trim is one of the central drivers of energy efficiency in ship operation. ECO-Assistant delivers an optimum trim angle for a specific ship with the input of only a few simple operational parameters, such as current speed, displacement and water depth. This instantly leads to less bunker consumption, less CO2 emissions and a payback that can be counted in months. It can be installed on any computer, requiring no modifications to the ship and no interfaces with the vessel’s systems.

“Cost pressure and tight market conditions have forced shipping companies to save money on their oil bills,” said Mr. Khorshed Alam, Managing Director of FutureShip Singapore Pte Ltd. “ECO-Assistant is a cost-efficient, easy-to-use solution to improve both a vessel’s profitability and its environmental performance. That is why we have seen its popularity growing among many shipping managers and operators.”

ECO-Assistant can regularly achieve fuel efficiency improvements of up to 6%. A typical 7,500 TEU container vessel operating at a slow steaming speed, for example, can reduce its CO2 emissions by 2,740 tons per year through using ECO-Assistant. To date, more than 300 systems have been installed onboard and onshore worldwide.

In Asian countries like Singapore and China, the number of vessels using the decision-support tool is rapidly growing. Singapore-based Masterbulk and several large Asian operators are part of ECO-Assistant’s global clientele. “This widespread growth also reflects the fact that the system can be applied to all kinds of vessels, including container vessels and bulk carriers,” stressed Vincent Li, Vice President of FutureShip China. In addition ECO-Assistant can also be integrated on demand into a vessel’s loading computer and cargo planning system to further boost its savings potential and optimise ballast water management.

Standing behind ECO-Assistant is a comprehensive database of ship-specific resistance and power demand data – calculated for each specific vessel over an entire operating range. These data are generated using FutureShip’s leading edge computational fluid dynamics tools and its innovative, fully automated simulation process.

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Germanischer Lloyd, November 12, 2012