Ports of the Future: Bringing Emissions in Port Visits to a Minimum by Collaboration and Digital Data Sharing

Improving port performance is a key factor in reducing emissions from shipping. Increased utilisation of port infrastructures by ships provides incentives for shipping companies and ports to take joint actions for reducing their carbon footprint. Ports and ships are still not totally ‘in-sync’ resulting in unnecessary waiting times and/or unnecessary movements. Different initiatives associated to port call coordination/synchronization/optimization do address the potential in aligning the ships arrival and departure with the port’s capabilities to serve the ship for the reduction of waiting times and emissions. The smart port of the future needs to be based on synchronization capabilities to enable sustainable shipping. To achieve substantial environmental effects, it is, however, a need for joining forces among the different initiatives that is brought as tools to be used by maritime transport producers. In this article, numerous initiatives are identified, and an approach for bringing those together, as an enabler for gaining substantial environmental effects putting the smart port of the future at the core.

by Chrysostomou, A; Lind, M; Bergmann, M

Read the complete paper here

We are truly honoured to have won the SMART4SEA E-Navigation Award. MarineFields Holding would like to thank everyone who voted and supported our nomination.

The recognition received proves the innovators of our platform Perseus and those who made the platform a reality, right.

In an era of digitalization & connectivity our mission is to provide one interface for instant data sharing between all connected actors, enhance digital collaboration between shipping companies, ports & terminals.

“The concept of live data sharing becomes a necessity. MarineFields created its data sharing platform Perseus in order to provide the shipping industry with an unparalleled technology” said our CEO Andreas Chrysostomou.

We will continue to innovate in order to provide the shipping industry with an increased efficiency in port operations.

In recent years a lot of discussion takes place about port call synchronisation, a challenge that involves mainly two parties the port and the ship.  That are driven by different logics. A shipping companies’ fleet visit many ports while a port is visited by many ships of different trades pursued by different shipping companies.[1] Although, this might seem very similar the priorities from each end are totally different even if both perspectives build upon the same information pieces forming holistic structures of situational awareness.

It is also to be acknowledged that there is a trend in the maritime sector to empower networks of networks to become connected. This may concern ports becoming connected to each other, cargo owners becoming connected to ports, and shipping companies’ fleet operating centres to become connected to port’s operation centres.

To support that the ship as infrastructure as well as the different infrastructures of the port are utilised to a maximum it is thus a need for a digital data sharing platform. Perseus, provided by MarineFields, has been developed to support such emerging development of which time stamps of different kinds are shared within local communities (networks) and between such networks. To support the actor’s, within such networks, coordination and synchronization activities those timestamps need to concern both actuals and forecasts, need to be continually updated, and concern both operations and movements.

The Ship Perspective: Coordination and synchronization by Perseus

Shipping companies require their fleet to be utilised to the maximum which means that the shipping company has a desire to keep the ship in operations, which includes its just-in-time arrival to the port, being served by the port with as little waiting times as possible and get on the move to the next port of destination as soon as possible.

It is therefore paramount for the shipping company to be well-informed about when the port would be open to provide services to visiting ships. By the digital infrastructure of Perseus, opportunities are offered for shipping companies to get continuous updates on the capabilities of the port to serve the ship. It is paramount for the shipping company to get updated on the availability of the infrastructure and resources that is to be used at the port of destination utilized by other (previous) visiting ships.

The Port Perspective:  Coordination and synchronization by Perseus

At the same time, ports are interested to have their port infrastructure utilized to a maximum at the same time as optimal value is provided to its visitors. This means that the different actors in the port contributing with value to its visitors do have a desire to get an overview of the forecasted utilization of the port infrastructure. As ships’ previous visits to ports many times are disrupted and that movements might be affected by congestions and bad weather, it becomes essential that the port with its actors is continually updated with the progress, plans, and disruptions of ships movements towards the port. Real-time updated data on ship movements and the progress of them being served in previous ports becomes critical for the port of destination for their possibilities act flexible. By the digital infrastructure of Perseus, such continuous updates would be offered to the port to secure that visiting ships are provided with high service value by securing that the ships are served at the point of arrival. Real-time updated data is key to empower the ports in its re-planning processes.

Final words

To secure that both the shipping company can optimize its use of its fleet as well as for the port with its actors can optimize its use of its infrastructure and resources, it is key to have access to data that is outside the scope of its own operations. Both sides do need to get continuous update on progress, plans, and disruptions of the other party for its situational awareness and to enable good planning arriving at maximum utilization of the infrastructure.

Perseus both provides a digital data sharing environment for the instant sharing of timestamps associated to ships’ visits to ports. Perseus supports common situational awareness to emerge for local information sharing communities (networks) as well as providing opportunities for networks to be connected to other networks in a trusted environment. Perseus has the capability for the different actors engaged in ships’ port visits, both on the ship side and on the port side to provide and consume time stamps. It also comes with ship as well as port centric applications to be consumed by different types of actors as well as providing opportunities for third-party developers to surface new types of applications.

Perseus neutral nature allows for each actor to empower their competitive advantage and expanding its connectivity and digital data sharing outside its own safe zone.

[1] Lind M., Becha H., Simha A., Larsen S. E., Ben-Amram E., Gnass M. (2021) Port call optimization: Two sides of the same coin, Smart Maritime Network, 25/2-2021 (https://smartmaritimenetwork.com/2021/02/25/port-call-optimisation-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/)