Eco-Efficiency in Ship Design
June 18, 2012 13:17Eco-efficiency means creating more goods and services with less resources, waste and pollution. For ship operators and designers this has been essentially translated into a regulatory framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping activities. This has resulted in the requirements for a Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP). On the operations side NAPA has a complete package for the SEEMP, but the nature of the NAPA for Design software may not immediately reveal how NAPA can be applied to address the aspects of eco-efficiency that are related to the design of the vessel. This article will attempt to shed some light on this subject.
What does Eco-Efficiency in Ship Design involve?
The Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) is typically what first comes to mind when people speak about eco-efficiency in ship design. This roughly indicates the amount of CO2 emissions per ton of cargo transported. As the EEDI depends directly on the installed power of the main engines, the emphasis tends to focus on the powering requirements of the vessel, and selection of technologies for producing more power with less pollution e.g. by switching to LNG, installing energy saving propulsion devices, or optimizing the hull form.
But an eco-efficient design must not consider minimization of the emissions by propulsion technologies alone. The other main factor besides the fuel consumption and subsequent emissions is the capacity of the vessel. Only by considering both aspects simultaneously can the optimal eco-efficient design be achieved.
Both power and capacity are affected by the lightweight of the ship. This requires then consideration of the arrangement, hull form, structures and major outfitting equipment and systems together. This treatment must start at the conceptual design stage and continue through the entire design process through to delivery of the vessel.
Lifetime Efficiency
Eco-efficient design cannot stop when the vessel leaves the yard. Operational feedback can provide real information about how the vessel is actually being run. The operational profile of the vessel can be recorded with onboard systems for SEEMP monitoring. This information, in much the same way sea trial data and model test data from previous designs are used in the early design stages of new vessels, can provide much more insight into the true operational profile of the vessel and the real design operation points which the naval architect should consider when optimizing the conceptual design of the vessel in the first place.
What NAPA can provide
NAPA is the one system in the world which can address all the essential aspects of the eco-efficiency of the vessel at all stages of the design process. NAPA provides users with a powerful combination of design tools for automatic total design optimization for Eco-Efficiency, including:
- Hull form design and parametric variations
- General arrangement and cargo capacity
- Resistance, Propulsion, Manoeuvring and Seakeeping
- Fuel consumption and EEDI
- Detailed CFD analysis
- Structural design and scantling support
- Main equipment
- Weight and cost estimation
- Feedback from operations: real EEDI and Sea Margin
Because of the strong link between NAPA for Design and NAPA for Operations SEEMP solutions, organizations empowered with the NAPA system can focus on a truly eco-efficient design – a design for life.
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