We spoke to Jonathan Strachan (pictured), chief technical officer at UK-based naval engineering and design consultancy Houlder about its in-house R&D division, HOME.
HOME is Houlder’s Optimisation and Modelling Environment which recently received funding from Innovate UK, intended to bolster this part of the company’s offering. Speaking to Strachan, I asked what makes HOME different from other vessel modelling software solutions such as digital twins.
“Basically physics,” said Strachan with a touch of irony as he explained that digital twins essentially just use the data received from a ship to populate the simulation. “That [digital twin], to a certain extent, might tell you how the ship currently operates allowing you to select the optimum [draft, RPM, etc). But it doesn’t allow you to select something you haven’t operated before,” he explained.
In a nutshell, what HOME allows shipowners and indeed all those involved in the maritime value chain to see is what impact adding energy saving devices to a vessel will have on its efficiency and thereby emissions footprint. It can simulate what adding wind-assisted propulsion (WAP) will do to a ship’s energy profile, air lubrication systems (ALS) and a few other variables including fuel type. Even changing the type of hull coating can be assessed to see what impact it has on a vessel’s performance using HOME. Surprisingly it was this factor which influenced one of its clients, Siem Shipping, to make changes. While trialling all the above-mentioned energy saving methods, it was a change to a silicon-based paint and the addition of a small duck tail on the aft of the vessel which was a “go-er” in Strachan’s words.
The implication of this discovery is perhaps what makes Houlder’s HOME enticing to the shipping world. While shipowners and OEMs battle with the harsh financial realities of what changing the fuel type a vessel runs on would entail, here’s a system that can show a 5% reduction (in Siem’s case) in emissions with presumably little cost.
Potential barriers
Given the savings achievable displayed by its use, what are the barriers to the wholesale adoption of Houlder’s proprietary system HOME?
“I think part of it is just people being aware of it. Aware that they can use these tools [HOME] to help them make these investment decisions,” answers Strachan.
HOME’s advantage over OEMs claiming their systems will reduce emissions by a certain amount is two-fold. It has the data to verify its claims and is also completely independent. Strachan says that they don’t mind which system a shipowner wants to use, be it WAP, ALS or something else, and as Houlder is not supplying these products it has no bias. This level of transparency is surely sought after in a market being forced to act by an ongoing tsunami of regulation which due to no agreement at IMO level yet, may well be fractured and vary region to region.
But in this potentially topsy turvy world of differing regulatory and taxation regimes there may well be an important place for HOME to sit. As it looks at where the ships are operating (using AIS data) it can plan for regulations for ships calling at EU ports as well as looking at what impact the weather has on certain routes.
Real life
While HOME uses sophisticated software upon which to build its models, there’s still a need for real life validation.
“We start off with our physics-based model, we then validate it against ship trial data to make sure that we’ve got the basis correct. And we also get data from the owner as to how the vessel is actually operating and check that our results are correlating well,” says Strachan adding that it uses data from various sea states, not just calm waters to base its modelling on. It’s also using equipment on board two of its clients’ vessels currently to feed back into its modelling program for further verification.
The combination of advanced computer-driven modelling with data taken from real life situations is a heady mix especially when compared to existing simulations programs which may lack this level of sophistication. All in it paints an interesting picture of the future of maritime planning and investment.
Crystal ball time
When asked what the maritime market will look like in the next 5-10 years with regards to innovations such as HOME, Strachan said: “I think because of the capabilities that we have and the capabilities that are coming, people will expect much more analysis before they make decisions.”
He added that while currently decision makers may have to rely on “gut feeling” when it comes to what fuel and energy saving devices to use for their vessels, systems such as HOME allow them to put “some figures to it”.
In essence HOME allows for greater certainty over things like return on investment and the time periods in which to expect it, metrics which are of great importance to those in the marine value chain, from investors and shipowners to charterers.
Given the regulatory uncertainty facing the maritime industry, Strachan sees a system like HOME becoming more prevalent going forward as it allows for models which can be adjusted for differing regulatory, taxation and geographical frameworks. Following last October’s deadlock at the IMO regarding the introduction of its Net Zero Framework, he may well be on the money with that assertion.
Click here to read more about Houlder.
