Many ships built in the last ten years have the potential for electronic performance data collection from a wide range of engine-room and bridge systems. However, a single vessel can easily have equipment from 60 or more manufacturers, so despite the potential this information provides for improving environmental compliance and performance, few shipowners are taking advantage of it with existing manual reporting systems.
According to Dr Dale Neef, managing director of US consulting company DNA Maritime, electronic data generation systems are all going to be open-source soon and could be read by almost any computer system. Dr Neef works independently of equipment manufacturers and software companies to help shipping companies with the main challenge, which is to pinpoint what information they actually need for their compliance and environmental performance goals.
Accurate and verifiable data, rather than manual record-keeping, can equip ship operators with the proof that they conducted, for example, ballast water exchange, or conversely that conditions were such that it was unsafe to do so. In combination with on-stack measurement systems, electronic data collection and reporting can also provide proof of fuel-switching in emission control areas or data for participation in emissions trading schemes.
However, such developments are a double-edged sword, raising privacy issues if a regulator were to demand the data. Some in the industry have said it would be like driving around in your car with your speed electronically displayed for all to see.
Thinking of recent Australian accidents such as the grounding of the 'Shen Neng 1' on the Great Barrier Reef and the oil spill caused by the 'Pacific Adventurer' container ship, John Walton, an installation engineer based in Australia for Datatrac, says that the systems his company provides for data collection and analysis can help companies charged with a violation demonstrate that they are taking steps to ensure company procedures are now being followed.
One of Datatrac's products, Envirotrac, allows efficient monitoring, recording and audit of systems such as oily water separators. Electronic tags are fitted to the equipment, pipe work and associated valves and flanges to record any unauthorised bypassing of the system. The company's Assetrac system reduces the paperwork associated with traditional handling of engine room logs. Digital data is collected in a hand-held PDA, data entry is timed and PIN secured. Datatrac's scope of delivery also includes customised data analysis and reporting systems, including a web-based interface.
"The real value in utilising a system like Datatrac is the ability to compare like for like. For example, environmental performance across ships, oil consumption and individual equipment performance compared with manufacturer's parameters," said Walton.
Earlier this year, Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) renewed its contract with Datatrac for a further three years. OSG has Datatrac systems on over 65 of their tankers and the contract extension will see all their international and Athens-managed tanker fleets fitted with the systems. OSG fleet managers will have immediate access to all operational data and will be able to make decisions based on detailed historical and comparative trends. The information is captured as part of the crew's normal daily routine and it takes less time to collect and log data than manual systems, says Datatrac.
"With increasing reporting, compliance and legislative requirements being imposed on shipping companies, Datatrac's software has the flexibility to capture additional fields of information with minimal effort," said Walton.
US-based Intellocorp's ShipStrument Dashboard Software provides ship operators with over 600 performance indicators, including 80 relating to environmental performance. Intellocorp has now launched ShipStrument v2.06. which offers integration with ship management systems such as Amos-D, Imos, NS-5 and Napa.
"As of now we are able to automate 85 per cent of the data loads," says marketing director Duke Johnson. "This is a huge step in the direction of where we want to go for easing up the busy work life aboard."
Fleet management software providers will increasingly make use of onboard electronic data for their voyage management capabilities, predicts Dr Neef. A small server is all that is required to warehouse the data already produced.
"You could be sampling your engine every five seconds if you want. It is nothing to computing," said Dr Neef.
Wendy Laursen
