According to Stena Line, during the last month its Stena Fuel Pilot AI assistant has been successfully introduced on two more vessels, the Stena Flavia and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Seven Stena Line vessels in Scandinavia, Germany and the Baltic Sea now operate with AI assistance, aiming to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 5%.
The Stena Fuel Pilot started as a pilot study on the Stena Scandinavica on the Gothenburg-Kiel route back in 2018, to investigate and explore how artificial intelligence can be used to save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions.
The system combines artificial intelligence, nautical expertise and data sources such as current, waves, depth and wind as well as the vessel characteristics and the route timetable. It has led to savings of between 2-5% and a fleet-wide rollout is planned.
“We are working hard to reduce our fuel consumption and emissions while at the same time exploring tomorrow’s fuels and technologies,” said Erik Lewenhaupt, group head of sustainability at Stena Line. “The main drivers behind the reduction of emissions in 2020 are that we have introduced three new energy-efficient vessels on the Irish Sea. We have also introduced renewable shore electricity during port calls in Kiel and in total seven ships in the fleet have been equipped with the AI assistant Stena Fuel Pilot to support our captains in operating the vessels in the most energy-efficient way.”
The use of artificial intelligence on board is one of four key areas Stena Line has identified to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30% by 2030 to achieve the ambitious target of becoming completely fossil-free by 2050. The other key areas are electrification of the port and vessel operations, increased use of alternative fuels such as methanol and hydrogen, and modernizing the existing fleet and introducing new, efficient vessels, such as its five new E-Flexer ferries.