AiP for Aurelia's Bulk Carrier "Green Retrofit" Solution

RINA awarded an Approval in Principle (AiP) for a green retrofit package solution designed by Aurelia, in partnership with Econowind, Wattlab and Vertom, aimed to meet CO2 reduction targets in compliance with CII. The retrofit package can be applied to almost any kind of vessel and incorporates rigid sails, solar panels, batteries, optimized weather-routing, and a smart decision support system developed by Hydrographic and Marine Consultants (HMC) to dramatically reduce emissions of an existing Newcastlemax bulk carrier. 

For the Newcastlemax bulk carrier, the challenge was to meet EEXI and the CII index for the reduction of CO2  emissions. The 203,000 DWT bulk carrier has a length of 300 m, a beam of 50 m and a range of 24,500 nautical miles.

AURELIA developed a CII calculator used to assess the status of the vessel and give an overview of what was needed to comply with the CII index based on five annual sailings between Brazil and China.

The resulting solution proposes two investment steps for shipowners looking to comply with the CII index. The first, to be done in 2023, involves the installation of Solar Flatrack technology, batteries, and the SafePlan software developed by HMC: a combination of technologies aimed to reduce the hours in service of the auxiliary engines. Surplus energy is used to charge the battery bank.

The second stage of investment, required by 2025, includes the installation of six rigid, 30m high sails to provide supporting wind propulsion, along with switching from fossil to biofuels. The added wind propulsion provides power to the vessel and lowers the load of the main engine (2T), thereby reducing fuel consumption and was shown to reach 1237 kW at 67% operation per day. With the use of biofuels to further lower emissions, this investment stage reduces CO2 emissions by 10.3% or 5560 tons of CO2 per year.

Vertom joined the retrofit project with the general cargo vessel MV Anna. Since 2022, Vertom has already started the retrofit process for efficiency improvements and carbon reduction of MV Anna by installing two 16 m Econowind VentiFoil on the bow. For a more powerful and complete retrofit, Solar Flatrack are being tested this year and will be added to existing Vertom vessels in 2023