Rule for reducing wastage caused by fouling
GreenSteam has identified a simple rule allowing vessel operators to reduce fuel wastage caused by hull fouling.
Cleaning the vessel’s hull before it reaches a critical level of 10% fouling will result in fuel savings of around 40%. Beyond this point, fouling moves from simple slime growth to the more serious issue of firmly bonded marine organisms. Prior to this point, light cleaning can restore performance without damaging the coating.
The company’s studies showed that relying on periodic, scheduled hull cleaning is a costly approach for operators because the rate of fouling varied widely. Similarly, leaving fouling assessments to inspections is flawed because it provides only a snapshot in time and is reliant on the competence of the inspector.
Rather than rely on these methods, GreenSteam has created a machine learning platform with SMART push notifications that allow vessel operators to optimise hull cleaning by setting limits which trigger automatic alerts when thresholds – such as 10% – are reached.
GreenSteam has also identified a further three rules to optimise hull cleaning, these being increasing vigilance if the rate of fouling exceeds 10% per year, cleaning the hull when the accumulated cost of wasted fuel from fouling matches the cost to clean the hull and cleaning the hull before the daily excess fuel consumption exceeds the party speed/consumption plus a 5% allowance.
