Steps to define an operation profile

• This EU-Project does not study a specific relation between two ports like in a normal vessel design project.
• It aims at creating a standard vessel for coastal and fluvial transport for the future maritime logistics.
• After studying 1200 ports in Europe and Africa, the team decided to create a standard operation profile for scientific purposes. It is a synthetic model only.
• The standard model is based in a feeder and general cargo operation between two large terminals (1000 nm apart), serving 9 small ports with feeder containers and, at the same time, transporting between these ports.
• In a second step, the project compared a current feeder (comparable Hydrodynamic Resistance) with the new vessel, serving two ports per day, each 100 nm apart.
  

Model of simplified operation area

Energy scenarios

 The following graphics compares the fuel consumption between a current vessel and CargoXpress:
  

Advantages of the new system

• The optimized hull form shows very low resistance in tank testing and therefore needs only reduced machine power.
• The on-board Ship to Shore crane allows for shorter port stays and reduced traveling speed between ports still arriving at the same time as the current vessels.
• The sail-wing adds 700kW in 46% of the voyages, reducing considerably fuel consumption and CO₂.
• The large battery set allows for port accessing and maneuvering without main machinery and serves as auxiliary back-up.
• The new concept has tested results to save more than 50% of fuel and CO₂ and runs only 36% on traditional low efficiency piston engines.