Towards smart and green shipping

INTENS, a VTT-coordinated Finnish research-industry collaborative consortium, has jointly committed over €13 million in the next three years, with the ardent funding support of €5.6 million from Business Finland, to proactively advancing, promoting and digitalizing Finnish marine industries and beyond, specially focusing on energy efficiency improvement and emissions reduction of ship energy systems.

“Thanks to the great support from Business Finland Arctic Seas program and the consortium partners, we are able to form this industry-wide ambitious and committed consortium to boost the digitalization and digital transformation of the Finnish marine sector and promote our top-level marine expertise globally,” states Vice President of Digital Engineering, Johannes Hyrynen, from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.

Finland has been one of the leading countries in the digitalization and automation of the marine industries. The INTENS project aims to further deepen and uniquely integrate digital transformation into the whole chain of the marine cluster, from R&D to innovation, design, manufacturing and operation. The generated novel solutions and innovations can largely improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions of ship energy systems, and potentially disrupt the ways how the marine industries operate currently and pave the way to the future shipping.

“Expectations for this co-operation effort bringing together skilled organizations are high”, says Chief Advisor, Matti Säynätjoki, from Business Finland.

“Considerable opportunities in developing sustainable maritime traffic have been recognized. By combining two well-known Finnish strong capabilities, maritime technology and digitalization, Finnish companies create new competitive edge for themselves in the international markets. Based on the knowledge and skills formed in INTENS the companies will develop new components, systems, software products and knowledge based services with higher added value”, Säynätjoki continues.

“Wärtsilä believes the INTENS project to be an important step towards a smart marine ecosystem. As the outcome, we expect to see improved system efficiency, reliability and availability,” says General Manager, Sebastiaan Bleuanus, from Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.

“In the wake of the recent decision by the IMO to reduce CO2 emissions from shipping by 50% by 2050, we need to implement ways for the industry to decarbonise quickly. Optimising operations of existing vessels is the fastest way to do this in the short term,” says Director of Development, Pekka Pakkanen, from NAPA Shipping Solutions.

“The collaboration and funding from INTENS project allows us to create market-leading voyage planning services, with the potential to reduce 30% of yearly shipping CO2 emissions.”

“Here at Meyer Turku shipyard we want to further improve our leading role as a designer and builder of the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly cruise ships”, says Head of R&D, Kari Sillanpää, from Meyer Turku Oy.

“In INTENS, together with our partners, we develop efficient and reliable ways to utilise digital virtual ship models throughout ship’s life-cycle so as to better meet the challenges originating from ever increasing complexity of large cruise ships.”

“Deltamarin is proud to be a member in the INTENS consortium, where we can enhance our knowledge of ship operational data handling and various optimization methods and hence develop our new generation ship design process,” says Development Manager, Mia Elg, from Deltamarin Oy.

“The cooperation with our research network and company partners is a valuable asset for reaching solutions that both include scientific novelty and represent state of the art in designing energy-efficient and green ships.”

“Collaboration and sharing is the future. INTENS is an open collaborative consortium and we welcome all the interested parties worldwide to work with us together for a smarter and greener shipping future,” addresses the INTENS Project Coordinator, Zou Guangrong, from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.

The INTENS (Integrated Energy Solutions to Smart and Green Shipping, http://intens.vtt.fi) consortium consists of 14 Finnish marine companies (Wärtsilä Finland Oy, NAPA Oy, Meyer Turku Oy, Dinex Ecocat Oy, Deltamarin Oy, Vahterus Oy, Protacon Technologies Oy, Parker Hannifin Oy, JTK Power Oy, 3D Studio Blomberg Ab, Jeppo Biogas Ab, Visorc Oy, Tallink Silja Oy and NLC Ferry Ab Oy) and 5 renowned research organizations (Aalto University, Lappeenranta University of Technology, University of Vaasa, Åbo Akademi University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd).