Optimising the transport chain may be the only way for substantial reductions in the environmental footprint of the seaborne transportation system for the delivery of goods for the world, as it has currently evolved.
We met Emmanuel A. Vordonis, Executive Director, together with Vassilis Lampropoulos, Technical Manager of Thenamaris Ships Management in Greece. Located at the water front of Vouliagmeni, not far from the old Athens airport, Thenamaris operates a fleet of 40 vessels, 10 bulk carriers and 30 tankers with a total current capacity of about of 3.9 million dwt tons.
Mr Vordonis represents the company and the Greek tankers community in Intertanko, where after many years of service is nearing the completion of his term in the Executive Committee of the organisation. In our discussion with him, we focussed on strategic issues on how Thenamaris works to minimize environmental footprint of its operations, but also on some of his views on how the wider maritime industry could seriously contribute in the substantial emissions reduction, which are required. We always have to bear in mind the environmental targets of 20% or 30% CO2 reduction that scientists and the global community are setting in the hope of reversing the process of constant heating and climatic change.
What has become clear, Mr Vordonis says, is that the reductions that can be achieved after intense systematic effort on the side of technical operations, are limited only to a few percentage points, i.e. 1%, 2% or 3% at the max. If we are to achieve higher gains, which can create reductions comparable to our community targets and the creation of hope for retarding climatic changes, then, we need to look beyond the technical performance of our own energy plants and to laterally seek new areas of operational optimisation. This leads us beyond the territory of each individual company and the limits of the global shipping community.
We need to look into major changes of the complete logistical chain, remove inefficiencies and work together with charterers, receivers, terminals and even the trading arms of our counter-parts to remove sub-optimality of the system, reduce ballast legs, triangulate, avoid part cargoes, waiting times and make any creative combination that would maximise the transport efficiency of our system’s capacity.
By making an internal analysis of our own pattern of change in Thenamaris, we were positively surprised to realise that in the last ten years, by modernising the fleet we operate, by increasing the sizes and changing the typology of the ships we run, we have achieved a strictly measured 40% reduction of bunker consumption and therefore CO2 emissions, for every ton-mile of cargo we deliver to the world community.
The 200 tons/day of an old turbine VL with just a 120 tons of a modern vessel of similar size, the replacement of two Suezmaxes with a VL, or of two Aframaxes with a Suezmax and so on, have created substantial savings and major changes in the pattern of our operations. Working more, working together with others in optimising the logistical network is a domain worthwhile exploring for major savings. Similar results have been experienced in the bulk-carrier or container-ship companies that have measured similar positive results by increasing the scale of the ships they run and the longer hauls in creating substantial environmental gains.
The discussions we recently have with some of our major, closely cooperating, charterers on weather routing and implementation of green charter party terms is already creating substantial fruits. Certainly, while working on this strategic level, we never forget and relax on strict controls and optimisation in the technical performance of our energy plants.
I think that at this stage, it is worth pointing out how important it is to calculate the emissions created or reduced for every ton-mile of cargo delivered. The reference of environmental footprint to our direct production unit is the only way to allow us comparisons with other industry sectors and lead the community to balanced optimised solutions that will maximise the cost benefit balance of the options we will select. Without such reference to the unit of the ‘social work’ each sector of the industry delivers, we will never be able to make selections that will maximise the cost benefit and net environmental gains we will create and we should always bear in mind that the investments and costs that will be required will be huge and therefore the maximization of their utility is of paramount importance
Commenting on the emissions trading schemes and other market related fund-raising mechanisms that may contribute in the reduction of green house gases percentage in the atmosphere, currently under discussion, I think it is worth pointing out that all schemes proposed are in effect creating an increase in transportation cost, which will eventually be transferred directly to the pocket of the end-consumer and simple individual citizen of world communities. In particular, it is worth saying that all schemes including the bunker levy or the contribution fund, as proposed by the Danish community, or even the alternative put forward by the Japanese, they all create an additional cost on every ton of cargo transported, which will be evenly transferred, both to the citizens of the rich, but also of the poorer sectors of the world. In this respect, the environmental responsibility of the highly consuming West will be paid in equal terms by the poor non-consuming communities, who are striving for the cheapest possible arrival of medicine, water, food and other essentials to secure their survival in adverse environmental conditions. So, the issues of the market based taxation of emissions-production, takes an ethical dimension, which is worthwhile considering before final selections are made.
Mr Vordonis believes that in preparation for the Copenhagen meeting, it is worth that each one of us, together with our institutional or governmental representations and together with our maritime flag holder the IMO, we will try to open up our thinking, develop a holistic view and propose the mechanisms that will bring all stakeholders together for best and well balanced solutions based on cross-industry thinking and net social and environmental benefit.
With Mr Lampropoulos we focused more on the specifics of how Thenamaris works for their energy optimization and emissions reduction, as well as the conclusions from their joint project with DNV in this direction.
Thenamaris has put a lot of resources and effort to benchmark the energy management efficiency of operations in order to identify areas of improvement. The outcome of the benchmarking against industry, with the help of DNV clearly revealed the solid performance, which in order to further improve required revising of the some of the approaches used.
As Mr Lampropoulos explained when targeting to improve by a relatively small percentage for each different type of activity (although all together can sum up to relative high percent) and fine tune you need a very solid measurement framework, and the inherited difficulties of the "human in loop" methods need to be addressed. Higher accuracy and more frequent data are needed, without stressing the already overloaded officers on-board, thus an automated system for collecting all the necessary measurements is the logical direction. Sufficient and accurate data are essential for understanding, benchmarking and validating any improvement initiative.
Next was to identify the true safe operational limit of each equipment and re-approach the systems on board from first–principles in order to identify improvement areas, which were not identified before. As an example the lowest safe constant sailing main engine rpm have been identified for all of our vessels enabling the benefit maximization though the extended operational envelope.
The project with DNV served as a solid foundation for these initiatives helping communication and understanding across the Company’s different functions bridging requirements and ideas towards a global optimum.