Turkish manager Chemfleet is expanding its adoption of propulsion efficiency software after achieving significant fuel savings.
The company, owned 51% by Yildirim Group, is adding three more tankers to the programme involving Sweden’s Berg Propulsion.
A trial on the 13,400-dwt tanker YM Miranda (built 2013), owned by sister outfit Yilmar Shipping, yielded a bunker consumption reduction of around 10%, the Istanbul company said.
Berg’s MPC 800M Dynamic Drive software for the control system will now be installed on the 6.970-dwt YM Neptune, YM Pluto (both built 2009) and YM Uranus (built 2008) this year.
Chemfleet is also reviewing implementation on six more tankers under management.
The system works by setting upper limits for vessel speed or fuel consumption by optimising the pitch and revolutions per minute of the control pitch propeller.
If this speed is exceeded, the software automatically reduces thrust until the limit is met.
Replacing the existing control system from another supplier with Berg’s system on the YM Miranda took three days.
Ozgur Bartinli, service manager at Berg Propulsion, explained that the system offers open architecture for software upgrades as required.
“Chemfleet is a high-quality chemical tanker manager which takes a proactive approach to enhancing ship performance — looking beyond the requirements of CII [Carbon Intensity Indicator] and EEXI [Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index], for example,” he said.
“Adding Dynamic Drive delivers not only a significant competitive edge, but also the performance to anticipate emissions requirements well ahead of regulation.”
Berg uses 3D scanning and modelling tools to develop time and cost-saving retrofit options.
