The Intelligent Monitoring Facility for Vessel Energy Consumption and Emissions is a high-tech system that includes IoT (Internet of Things) sensing, big data processing, and AI (artificial intelligence)-based decision-making. By integrating energy consumption, exhaust emissions, and equipment operation data of a vessel in real-time, it opens up the possibility of integrated management for energy consumption optimization, emission compliance, and operational efficiency improvement. Its key revolutionary point in comparison with the traditional manual sampling and inspection is "full-time, full-parameter, full-link" intelligent management and control, which not only monitors emission indicators such as fuel sulfur content, PM2.5, and CO2 but also keeps track of energy consumption-related parameters like main engine power and ship speed. In the end, a data-driven closed loop of "monitoring - analysis - early warning - optimization" can be performed.
Applications: The installation that is based on the combination of vessel categories and the features of the water area, identifies three typical application scenarios with different monitoring focus for each.
A device like a container ships or bulk carriers that run on the ocean is aimed at solving the problems of "long-distance energy consumption optimization" and "international compliance". For instance, the monitoring data of more than 30,000 merchant ships from the "Low-Carbon Treasure" platform of COSCO Shipping unveil that by AI algorithms optimizing speed and route, a single ship cuts down sulfur emissions by over 2000 tons each year and thus, passes the PSC inspections at several ports worldwide. It is different in a number of ways, among which are the complete carbon footprint of a voyage and the automatic adjustment to international emission regulations (e.g., IMO 2025 Carbon Intensity New Regulation).
Given that the inland vessels operate in water areas close to cities, the focus has been shifted mainly towards real-time emission control and short-distance energy efficiency optimization. While piloting the ship energy-saving management system developed by China Electric Kaijie in the Xiangjiang River basin, the system collects real-time data such as water flow speed and main engine speed, and from these, it produces the best operation instructions for navigators, thus, achieving a total energy saving of 15%. The system is highly customized to raise the energy consumption alarm that is considered the most dangerous among water areas such as shoals or bridge zones, and it additionally contains an automatic reminder for navigators when they should change the speed of the ship for energy-saving if they are coming near bridges within 2 kilometers.
For example, if a system detects that a passenger is going over the railing, it sends a signal to the energy consumption system to make the necessary changes to the ship's stability.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
