Some of the world’s leading shipowners are trialling CM Technologies’ new cloud-based engine performance analysis tool as way of optimising the fleet wide efficiency of their marine diesel engines to meet CO2 reduction goals in line with the International Maritime Organizations’ EEXI and CII requirements.
The decision by major containership, tanker and bulk carrier operators in Europe, the United States of America, and Singapore is to upload data recorded from CMT’s PREMET diesel performance indicators to its new PREMET Cloud evaluation platform. The decision follows the efficiency improvement gains achieved by a number of Germany-based ship operators.
Both USC Barnkrug and BAT Agrar GmbH & Co. KG found that CMT’s analysis of engine cylinder pressures helped engineers and superintendents improve engine performance by between three and five per cent.
The combustion process – the chemical reaction inside two- and four-stroke diesel engines that turns fuel into energy – needs to completely burn the fuel for optimal engine efficiency. Analysis of cylinder pressures and other parameters can indicate incomplete combustion, which results in greater fuel consumption, emissions and component damage.
Reduced fuel and maintenance costs were also achieved for USC Barnkrug, which has rolled out the PREMET-X diesel indicator and PREMET Cloud combination across its fleet of 32 feeder ships.
The combustion process is a complex process and any slight deviation from the engine’s original design parameters can severely impede performance, resulting in unnecessary and costly increases in fuel consumption and emissions.
The PREMET Cloud platform, which can be integrated with other cloud-based ship performance tools, automatically analyses measurements from each piston cylinder against a set of 22 key parameters, such as RPM, fuel injection, compression and combustion pressures and angles, to provide alerts and recommended actions to optimise engine performance.
Cylinder performance information is generated immediately and can be accessed via the internet on any device anywhere in the word.