The Blue Visby Solution project (BVS) reports that it has completed a series of prototype trials involving 16 LPG tankers under charter by Marubeni Corporation, a Blue Visby Consortium member, across 40 voyages over a period of three months.
The trials were designed to test the BVS technology acting as a decision-support tool in a First Come First Served (FCFS) operational environment, providing the necessary optimisation information and recommendations for the operator to decide whether to implement the system based on its own operational and commercial considerations. BVS was designed to mitigate the effects of Sail Fast Then Wait voyages, where operators waste fuel travelling at higher speeds to a destination port and then waiting upon arrival.
Due to the FCFS operational environment, a key parameter of the Marubeni trials involved monitoring the operational status of a total of some 919 vessels, so as to ensure that the vessels participating in the trials would not be overtaken by non-participating vessels.
Approximately 31 actionable recommendations for vessels to reduce speed were issued, with projected fuel and GHG savings of about 29%, on average. This average figure was confirmed in the results from the vessels that followed the BVS recommendations. These savings were delivered through speed reductions from an average speed of 13.6 knots, down to an average speed of 10.6 knots.
The Marubeni trials followed on from earlier prototype trials completed in Q2 2024 involving supramax bulkers under charter by Blue Visby Consortium member CBH Group, which demonstrated fuel and GHG emissions savings of approximately 8-28%. That trial was designed to test the system in the context of optimising for the needs of a terminal stem, rather than in an FCFS environment.
