Decision Support System for ship energy efficiency

The mission of the demonstrator was to improve the overall energy efficiency of passenger ships, in order to reduce the emissions per each passenger and per each mile of navigation. In particular, a dedicated Decision Support System (DSS) has been developed combining different energetic models helping to manage the ship as much efficiently as possible. Thanks to the hydrodynamics, propulsion, electrical and thermal models, in fact, the actual energy status of the ship is known and optimized in real time in order to sustain the captain take real time decisions. A specific ferry ship, Victoria I from Tallink, has been made available for installation of dedicated sensors, data acquisition and demonstrator tests.

Moreover, several innovative technologies have been evaluated in order to assess cost effectiveness, compliance with the applicable regulatory framework and, obviously, their global impact on the over-all efficiency of test-case cruise-ships. Several studies have been done in order to assess the on-board applicability of the newest technologies and structural solutions, taking into account their impact on layout and on-board architecture of passenger vessels.

The improvement of overall energy efficiency of passenger ships leads to a consequent reduction of emissions into the atmosphere in terms of emission / payload (number of passengers) / mile ratio.