Qtagg to digitalise Danielle Casanova

June 05, 2024

The Swedish tech company from Västerås will equip Corsica Linea's largest ferry with EcoPilot, an automated eco-driving system that uses weather forecasts and ship data to calculate the best power plan for a route and a set arrival time.

"EcoPilot achieves fuel savings through three main methods: firstly, it automatically executes optimized power plans, keeping the load on the engine constant. Secondly, it prevents instances of 'hurry up and wait' and thirdly by adapting quickly to changing conditions, ensuring vessels arrive just in time, thus avoiding unnecessary fuel consumption," explained Per Österberg, CCO at Qtagg.

His company furthered in a press brief, "This type of automated eco-driving does not require the captain to manually change either speed or pitch. Instead, the active power routing provides the captain with full control over the arrival time and mitigates the human tendency to set a higher speed than necessary at the start of a voyage."

Danielle Casanova will also get the new DEGO IV engine governors, new ASAC actuators, and a new pitch control system.

The EcoPilot power routing system comes with a 3% fuel consumption reduction guarantee, but the expected conservative-calculation savings for Daneille Casanova are in the interval of 6-8%. Qtagg says that for shorter voyages, like the trip between Dover and Calais lasting 90 minutes, they've observed savings of up to 20% (equating to over €500 thousand/year saved on bunker).

The actual fuel reduction will be determined by a four-five-week test period after commissioning. Qtagg will compare this against a baseline from a reference period where the ship operates without EcoPilot. A statistical analysis will confirm the comparison to compensate for any influence from varying environmental, load, and speed conditions.

"For us, this is not only about saving on fuel expenses. Installing EcoPilot will also help us achieve a reduction on CO2 emissions. As a company we have an ambitious plan to reduce our total CO2 emissions by 40% until 2030 and continue to move towards sustainable maritime transport in the Mediterranean. It will be interesting to see how much a system such as EcoPilot can contribute towards our goals," underscored Julien Colin, Superintendent at Corsica Linea SAS Division Technique.

Photo: Corsica Linea

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