NAPA, the leading maritime software, services and data analysis provider, has shared the preliminary results of its new research that explores the potential effect of EEXI (The Energy Efficiency Index for Existing Ships) on the transportation capacity, total emissions and carbon intensity of the global bulker fleet, according to NAPA's release.
Adopted by MARPOL in June 2021, EEXI measures and restricts CO2 emissions per transport work, purely considering the ship’s design parameters. One of the most common means of complying with EEXI is likely to be through limiting engine power. The study is unique in its methodology and findings - it maps EEXI requirements and engine power limitation onto real-life operations, including detailed weather data and records of real routes and speed profiles cross-referenced with the NAPA ship model database, which includes vessel-specific performance models for the global fleet.
The retro-optimization study used real voyage data from 1500 bulkers over 12 months in 2019.
NAPA used its Fleet Intelligence platform to study the true operational profiles of vessels in actual weather conditions, whilst analyzing how much the maximum engine power limitation would have impacted these operations. The data shows that the engine power limitations required by vessels to comply with EEXI would only have come into effect at high-speed peaks.
Therefore, for most of the year, if EEXI had been in effect, vessel operations would have remained largely similar. In addition, the speed reductions required by EEXI would have reduced the transportation capacity by an average of 2% for bulkers. However, the impact on transportation capacity was strongly dependent on the year in which the vessel was built, ranging from under 2% for newer vessels and up to 6% for vessels built in 2012. This indicates that EEDI, which came into force more recently, helped align vessels towards the current standard.
In the study, NAPA also found that the implementation of EEXI would reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 6.6% and carbon intensity by 4.6% on bulk carriers.
ABOUT NAPA
In its over 30 years of operation, NAPA has become a global leader in developing and scaling software, services and data analysis for a safer, smarter, and more sustainable maritime industry. NAPA operates globally, with 190 employees in ten countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. To date, NAPA has 420 user organizations for its design solutions, nearly 3,000 installations onboard vessels and a growing number of subscribers for its cloud-based fleet services.