Eco Pilots for new tugs

The company reports that more than 80 vessels of all kind are now equipped with the Eco Pilot and all of these companies have made substantial savings since installing the system to their vessels.

TMS and Boluda, two majors players in the towing French market, saw a real advantage equipping their vessels with the Eco Pilot.

French towage company TSM is building its new vessels at the Padmos shipyard and all of these are being fitted with Eco Pilot systems to monitor fuel usage on board. “The control of the vessel by the crew is the most important task,” said TSM owner Loïc Thomas.

This follows a series of retrofit installations on board workboats operated by big companies including Bourbon.

Two new tuna purses seiners for CFTO, built at Murueta in Spain, have also been fitted with Eco Pilot systems, as have several of their older vessels.

“Even assuming the actual low price level of gasoil, we estimate a payback period of between 12 and 18 months”, said Pierre-Alexis Dormegnies of C-Sense, commenting that the Eco Pilot allows users to measure fuel consumption in real time, providing options for very precise billing.

“There are many advantages to having this system to monitor fuel consumption and C-Sense offers a software application allowing the user to view and analyse the data collected, even making it possible to establish a Ship Efficiency & Energy Management Plan,” he said.

C-Sense’s Eco Pilot supports the provision of documentation certifying CO2 emission levels and this is a factor that is expected to become increasingly strict as new emissions regulations come into force.

It also supports preventative maintenance by anticipating faults in propulsion systems and engine components, such as feed pump injectors, while also providing a number of safeguards for operators such as preventing fuel theft.

The Eco Pilot is designed with a patented by-pass, with an integral algorithm that automatically switches to over-ride mode in the event of a flow metre malfunction.

C-Sense has also developed the Mobi-Pilot, a portable version of the Eco Pilot for use in shipyards, allowing shipbuilders to guarantee a precise fuel consumption when delivering a newbuilding. The trials of the B2M d’Entrecasteaux and the French Navy’s Bougainville were carried out using the French Piriou Shipyard’s C-Sense Mobi-Pilot.

The Eco Pilot is also claimed to be gaining a growing reputation across Europe with key tug operators, offshore companies and shipyards.

Visit C-Sense at Seawork International 2017 on stand PG115.

By Jake Frith