Development strategies for greener shipping

According to various environmental impact assessments, ocean-going vessels as the most important part of the maritime transportation industry will have increasing influence on the global ecosystem in near future. From the navigational and marine hydro-dynamical point of view, the accurate calculation or at least reliable estimation of attainable ship speed at actual sea is essential both from economic and environmental aspects. Reliable ship speed loss estimation under real environmental conditions allows a more accurate prediction of the power increase and fuel consumption as well as gas emissions from ships. On the other hand, technological enhancements like improved hull designs as well as improvement in power and propulsion systems could potentially reduce CO₂ emission up to 35%. These measures could effectively be combined with several other operational measures, such as optimal weather routing and voyage planning for ships, in order to ensure that fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions from ships are minimized on every voyage. An appropriate strategy for greener shipping based on aforementioned approaches is proposed in this paper.