Amarcon, an ABB Group company, is set to carry out a delivery of SEEMP-compliant Octopus-Onboard fuel monitoring systems that are intended for 12 Handysize bulk carrier vessels currently being constructed by China's YangZhou GuoYu Shipbuilding that are scheduled to be delivered to Singapore based owner Pioneer Marine respectively in 2015 and 2016.

Green Dolphins

The Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) is an operational measure that is tasked with establishing a proper mechanism of improving the energy efficiency of a vessel in a cost-effective way. It has been mandatory since 2013 under MARPOL Annex VI on all vessels that are over 400 GT.

ABB's SEEMP-compliant Octopus-Onboard fuel monitoring set-up features Coriolis flow sensors, a Torductor torque measurement system along with a software solution.

The Octopus-Onboard system sends sensor-measured data to the software, thus making essential fuel consumption indicators available to crew of the vessel, as well as to the onshore operations department. The system provides viable support to the crew in their decision-making process and makes it possible for them to properly optimize the vessel’s fuel efficiency. The data that the sensors manage to collect can also be analyzed later on via the use of the Octopus-Online portal.

The Pioneer newbuildings are Green Dolphin Eco vessels which were designed by Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI) in a manner in which they’d have reduced fuel consumption and would oblige with current and potential future air and water emissions regulations. The ABBadvisory solution enables Pioneer to take one important step further regarding the new vessels’ fuel efficiency.

"Our people’s safety and the protection of the environment sit on top of our list of priorities. The Octopus-Onboard advisory system goes hand-in-hand with the Green Dolphin newbuild design and opens a whole new room when considering optimal fuel efficiency. Relevant advice based on data received by the sensors makes it possible for the crew of the vessel to operate in the most fuel efficient way and thus we can greatly reduce our carbon footprint," commented Pankaj Khanna, Pioneer Marine’s President and CEO.

"Fuel consumption happens to be the highest operational expenditure of every single vessel of the global fleet, and one of the gravest environmental issues. With our Octopus-Onboard system we help vessel operators efficiently optimize their fleet’s fuel consumption while also reducing their emissions," commented Heikki Soljama, ABB's Marine and Ports business Managing Director.