In September 2021, a few months after acquiring the exclusive distribution rights of XBEE in Benelux, the fuel company decides to commission the European consultancy firm TAUW, which field of expertise consists in environmental and sustainable advice, to conduct an emission study of the exhaust gas emissions from the main engine of the Island Empress, then chartered by Peterson Energy Logistics company in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Measurements have been carried out without and with XBEE respectively on September 23, 2021 and January 13, 2022. The ship is a platform supply vessel (PSV – DP II) equipped with Rolls Royce Bergen C25 diesel engines, developing 2,400 kW each. They run on DMA.
The project has been led by Henk-Jan Heres from TAUW. The consultancy firm was in charge of measuring all gas emissions and certifying the whole process, weighing the specific fuel oil consumption (SFOC) data according to the IMO E3 test cycle. TAUW is accredited by the Dutch Council of Accreditation (RVA) in accordance with standard NEN-EN-ISO/IEC 17025.
Said project has been supervised by Roy Gebbink from XBEE Europe who designed the SFOC continuous monitoring solution using Kral flowmeters and Datum Electronics torque and shaft power measurement devices.
| IMO E3 test cycle | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 100% | 91% | 80% | 63% |
| Power | 100% | 75% | 50% | 25% |
| Weighing factor | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.15 | 0.15 |
Besides gas emissions measured by TAUW, the ship’s crew, upon request of Peterson, has installed and configured a highly accurate measuring system of flow meters and torque meters. Power output in kW and fuel consumption in litres per hour have been continuously monitored and validated by TAUW as being consistent with the CO2 emissions measurements.
Based on the IMO E3 test cycle, an average reduction of fuel consumption by 6.47% was demonstrated. Whereas this E3 test cycle is based on weighed averages where a 75% part load has the heaviest weighing (50%), it is quite common for ships to operate at lower loads which would improve even more the reduction of fuel consumption.
| Part load | % reduction | Weighing factor | % reduction according to E3 test cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
100 | -0.56% | 20 | -0.11% |
75 | -4.37% | 50 | -2.19% |
50 | -13.64% | 15 | -2.05% |
25 | -14.16% | 15 | -2.12% |
| TOTAL | -8.18% | 100 | -6.47% |
It is important to understand that fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are directly linked. Percentage reductions in fuel consumption are therefore directly applicable to the same reductions in CO2 emissions.
These results are confirmed by actual measurements of CO2 emissions in the exhaust system. Measurements took place at exactly the same time as the other measurements. Even after reducing the measurement uncertainties, the measurements of exhaust gases still exceeded the measurements of the flow and torque meters.
Finally, Peterson’s own measurement data also shows that they save an average of 14% fuel in partial load operation, thus also achieving this CO2 reduction.
It is clear, once again, that XBEE Enzyme Fuel Technology quickly pays for itself and provides further significant savings to all fuel consumers. Therefore, it offers a free solution to reduce all gas emissions, including CO2.
