Independent dry bulk shipping company Berge Bulk has adopted a platform developed by San Francisco-based maritime technology company Sofar Ocean, to save fuel, time, and emissions.
Sofar’s Wayfinder platform provides dynamic route and RPM guidance that accounts for variations in weather, market, and vessel performance. The company said it optimizes for each vessel’s business, safety, and decarbonization targets, maximizing efficiency and minimizing total voyage costs. Some of the data it relies on include the company’s marine weather forecasts–powered by Sofar’s global network of ocean sensors–and data-driven vessel performance models designed to increase the vessel’s efficiency.
“By reducing uncertainty in the weather predictions, Wayfinder delivers significant efficiency gains immediately and does so voyage after voyage, saving an average of 4-6% on fuel and emissions,” said Tim Janssen, co-founder and CEO of Sofar Ocean. “We are excited about the role of Wayfinder in supporting new technologies to drive the energy transition, and look forward to partnering with Berge Bulk on its journey to decarbonization.”
Berge Bulk, based in Singapore, has committed to offset 100% of Scope 1 emissions by 2025 at the latest, and to achieve zero Scope 1 emissions fleet-wide by 2050. The company has also committed to developing and deploying commercially viable deep-sea zero-emission vessels by 2030. Two of the company’s 80 ships are equipped with wind propulsion technology.
Additionally, the company offers carbon-offset voyages, such a route from the U.S. to Chile that offsets the environmental impact of the voyage with purchased carbon credits from the Cordillera Azul REDD+ Project, a forest protection project in Peru that protects 1,351,964 hectares of central Peru’s lowland and mountain forests against deforestation.
“Using innovative technology to boost vessel efficiency is key to our ‘Maritime Marshall Plan’ for decarbonization,” said James Marshall, founder and CEO of Berge Bulk. “Sofar’s Wayfinder helps us understand fleet performance and importantly improves the vessel’s route optimization as we aim for a zero-emissions fleet.”
Shipping accounts for 2.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Efforts to incrementally increase efficiency and reduce fuel burn, in addition to transitioning to lower-carbon fuels, is considered essential to reducing emissions in the hard-to-abate industry.
“We know that there is no silver bullet for getting to net zero,” said Janssen, “but are confident that voyage optimization is a stepping stone technology to support the efficient rollout of new, green technologies.”
