Green ship handling course
Pending the issue of more stringent measures by international institutions, Port Revel considers that the time has come to help raise the awareness of mariners responsible for manoeuvring large ships in harbour areas by providing them with ways of reducing fuel consumption and consequently CO2 and dust emissions in sensitive environments.
We realize that fuel consumption during manoeuvring does not account for the largest proportion of a ship's consumption over its whole trip, but it is a sensitive proportion as far as air pollution is concerned, especially in ports located near large cities.
With this "Clean Ship handling" principle in mind, Port Revel has equipped two of its twelve ships with sensors for measuring total energy consumption during a given ship handling operation. Trainees are thus challenged to carry out the operation in question with a target level of consumption (and hence atmospheric emissions) that is fixed in advance by the Centre's instructors, who have themselves already faced the same challenge.
The total energy consumption for a given track obviously depends on the pilot's ability to manoeuvre smoothly.
With this "Clean Ship handling" principle in mind, Port Revel has equipped two of its eleven ships with sensors for measuring total energy consumption during a given ship handling operation. Trainees are thus challenged to carry out the operation in question with a target level of consumption (and hence atmospheric emissions) that is fixed in advance by the Center's instructors, who have themselves already faced the same challenge.
Energy consumption is measured in kWh, which is the product of power (kW) and time (hours), hence this measurement does not depend on the ship's speed, i.e. "lots of power x short sailing time" will yield a similar result to "little power x long sailing time".
The total energy consumption for a given track will therefore depend on the pilot's ability to manoeuvre smoothly.
One of the tracks is shown here. It is 7 miles long and includes one undocking and one docking stern first.
It was sailed with the Otello in about 90 minutes at an average speed of nearly 5 knots (all values are full scale).
The total energy consumption measured was around 22 MWh, ranging from 18 MWh to 28 MWh ... showing significant variations depending on the pilot's way of manoeuvering.
The tests carried out with these models have shown that Port Revel masters the modelling techniques involved, and that similitude scales are maintained.