Mitsui E&S has commenced the provision of the hull contamination management service Falcons for the container ship ‘Proactive Earth’ operated by Kambara Kisen.
Through the provision of the Falcons service, Mitsui E&S contributes to Kambara Kisen’s accurate fuel consumption monitoring and CO₂ reduction through efficient operation and cleaning. Kambara Kisen has been working on improving fuel efficiency and reducing CO₂ emissions during operations by using the maritime data platform to validate operation and voyage data. However, it has been challenging to accurately determine performance while excluding external factors such as waves and wind due to hull fouling. The hull fouling management service Falcons provided by Mitsui E&S features a propulsion performance analysis method, believed to be unique, allowing the impact of hull fouling on fuel efficiency to be quantified. With the implementation of Falcons, Kambara Kisen can perform hull cleaning at optimal timing, enabling efficient fuel consumption and CO₂ reduction.
Falcons can also analyse past operational data collected by customers. For this introduction, the analysis of the past year’s operational data of Proactive Earth confirmed the ability to quantitatively understand the negative impact of hull fouling on fuel efficiency, which was a decisive factor in the service’s introduction. Particularly for container ships with short docking periods, making it difficult to clean the entire hull, it is important to quantitatively determine when and where to clean for maximum effectiveness, and Falcons is expected to deliver these results.
Kambara Kisen plans to continuously use the analysis results from Falcons and combine them with underwater fouling inspections and AI-based fouling assessments to maximise cleaning effectiveness when fuel efficiency deterioration due to fouling is observed. Once sufficient results are achieved, the company plans to consider expanding to other container ships and different types of vessels. Therefore, Mitsui E&S will contribute to CO₂ reduction in Kambara Kisen’s operational vessels through the continuous provision of Falcons services.
Image: Container ship ‘Proactive Earth’ (source: Mitsui E&S)
