As the global shift towards a zero-emissions society accelerates, the shipping industry increasingly relies on digital technology and data-driven processes to manage, report and ultimately cut its greenhouse gas emissions. To support maritime decarbonisation, last year leading classification society ClassNK launched a tool for streamlining emissions management at vessel and fleet level.

ClassNK “ZETA” – Zero Emission Transition Accelerator — helps owners to visualise the carbon dioxide emissions and Carbon Intensity Indicator ratings of their ships and fleets. It accurately reflects and simulates CII ratings by linking with the ClassNK MRV Portal, a compliance-supporting system for monitoring, reporting and verifying (MRV) schemes, such as IMO-DCS and EU-MRV.

In developing the tool, ClassNK adopted an agile methodology to address evolving customer needs quickly in a rapidly changing regulatory landscape. Based on this approach, the society has now launched three new features — CII benchmark viewer, CII simulation of the year and Performance Table powered by NAPA (a software and data services provider) — making ZETA richer in functionality than ever before.

Enhanced functionality in simulation

Using CII simulation of the year, users can predict the impact of alterations in speed or other parameters on a ship’s CII rating, facilitating the planning of operations to achieve improvement targets.

The new functionality represents an expansion of the existing simulation feature, which demonstrates the impact of emissions-reduction measures such as slow steaming, implementing an energy-saving device or using alternative fuel on a vessel’s or fleet’s CO2 emissions and CII ratings. This allows the user to compare the efficacy of these measures in the context of vessel or fleet operations.

ClassNK

New capabilities in benchmarking and performance tracking

Another new feature is the CII benchmark viewer, which enables users to compare a vessel’s CII rating with that of similar vessels by “ship type/size” and “ship age” to gauge the vessel’s competitiveness in terms of CII rating and assess the need to act.

Meanwhile, Performance Table powered by NAPA is an optional feature that makes it possible to evaluate speed and fuel consumption for different engine outputs under different weather, sea and loading conditions, thereby supporting the planning of ship operations and hull cleaning. The table refers to an up-to-date estimated value of each vessel’s performance as calculated by NAPA.

Existing features in vessel/fleet monitoring and reporting

CII benchmark viewer and Performance Table build on the capabilities of the existing vessel monitoring feature, which instantly displays the estimated annual CO2 emissions and CII ratings of individual ships to support decision-making regarding possible corrective actions. A related feature, fleet monitoring, offers the same insights at the fleet level.

Alongside simulation, vessel monitoring and fleet monitoring, ZETA offers a periodical report function detailing the emissions performance of ships and fleets to meet the reporting requirements of stakeholders.

Reliable, secure and user friendly

With data verified by classification societies, ZETA delivers a high degree of reliability, while its user-friendly design facilitates the secure sharing of emissions information via a common platform. Since ZETA is hosted in the cloud, there is no need to install any further software.

Shipmanagers that send data on managed ships to the ClassNK MRV Portal to comply with reporting regulations can use the same data for ZETA, eliminating the need to send additional information specifically for GHG management. Owners and charterers can also access the tool, using data relating to their owned or chartered vessels, subject to obtaining permission from the data holder – i.e., the shipmanagement company.

Towards zero-emissions shipping

As an intuitive, cloud-based GHG emissions management tool, ClassNK ZETA streamlines emissions monitoring, simulation, benchmarking and reporting processes to save the user time and effort in their endeavours to comply with accelerating regulatory requirements. Crucially, the tool is designed to evolve with regulations including the forthcoming EU ETS, drawing on ClassNK’s dialogue with customers to ensure their needs are met not only today but until a zero-emissions maritime industry becomes a reality