Germany’s FuelSave is looking to offer what it believes is a game-changing solution to the fuel consumption and emission puzzle facing the maritime industry.
The company recently introduced FS MARINE+, an engine efficiency enhancement system, which uses an onboard hydrogen synthgas generator to inject a gas and liquid water/methanol solution into an engine’s combustion chamber to significantly improve efficiency. The technology also significantly reduces CO2, NOx, and particulate matter emissions, through a cleaner and cooler combustion process.
According to Marc Sima, co-founder and president of FuelSave, the technology, approved by DNV GL, can be retrofitted to any vessel, runs completely autonomously and without the need for any special training. It allows operators of older tonnage to achieve IMO Tier I and Tier II compliance and can be used on IMO Tier III engines for even greater fuel efficiencies because emissions are controlled through the exhaust after-treatment system of a Tier III compliant vessel.
FuelSave is currently finalising a contract to install ist FS Marine+ solution to the main and auxilliary engine installations onboard four vessels and the company is also looking at offering it as a leasing / financing model, where the monthly savings outweigh the monthly costs to provide a positive cashflow and increase in profitability for the ship operator. Additionally, the company is preparing the first container-based solution for a project in the Caribbean and it expects to showcase the solution at the SMM trade show in Hamburg this year.
Sima reckons ship operators are looking for complimentary efficiency enhancement and emission reduction solutions that address the problem at its source, namely the dirty inefficient combustion of diesel and heavy fuel oil engines.
“In the long run we believe that cleaner fuels at a competitive price paired with better and more efficient engines that incorporate state of the art advances in enhancing combustion efficiency while regulating emissions in combination with exhaust after treatment systems and corresponding filters would provide an efficient and clean solution for the future IMO regulation standards,” Sima says.
Talking about the ongoing debate of choosing either scrubber or low sulfur fuel to comply with the upcoming IMO regulations, Sima is of the view that scrubbers are a potential mid-term solution but are not easy to retrofit and often take up too much space and do not necessarily have a good ROI so are not applicable in all cases.
“Low sulphur oil and synthetic fuels, would rise in price, making fuel cost saving solutions, such as FS Marine+ as next generation efficiency enhancement for maritime vessels. Importantly it can provide an even better business case with an amortiszation rate that would get shorter as the prices for low sulphur fuels increase,” says Sima.
Sima reckons the next generation efficiency enhancement solution for maritime vessels should be easy to retrofit and be able to make an impact on a broad scale, and not only for newbuilds or heavily sub-financed retrofits, such as for LNG, which in his opinion, does not provide a good ROI as well.
“Our solution not only reduces emissions, but provides a strong business case around amortisation to guarantee a good ROI for the customer. We believe that environmentally friendly solutions can only be adopted in great numbers to provide the biggest benefits when they make positive commercial sense, not only an ecological on. Economics are the main driver for customers to deploy such solutions,” Sima says.
In the medium term, FuelSave aims to create awareness and visibility in the market and establish FS Marine+ as a recognised and proven solution for enhancing the efficiency of marine engines and reducing emissions.
“We aim to establish FS Marine+ as the industry standard for fuel efficiency across the maritime industry, not only capable of protecting the environment but increasing the profitability of ship operators,” concludes Sima.
