Reducing CO₂ Emissions during the Operation of Unmanned Transport Vessels with Diesel Engines

Abstract

Environmental protection is one of the most challenging tasks facing mankind. Reducing CO2 emissions in the global economy, including maritime transport, is being pursued in various ways, one of them being the design work leading to the construction and operation of unmanned ships. Unmanned vessels operating on longer routes will still have internal combustion propulsion. However, they will not have the superstructure and the various systems and equipment necessary for the crew. This will result in an unmanned vessel having less weight, less displacement and, therefore, less size, resistance and propulsion power than a manned vessel for the same transport capacity. Consequently, the unmanned vessel will emit less CO2. This paper presents a novel method for predicting fuel consumption and CO2 emissions for unmanned container ships. The method uses regression relationships of geometric and operational parameters for manned container ships developed for this purpose to determine such relationships for unmanned ships. On this basis, it is shown what the level of CO2 reduction will be compared to manned container ships.

Keywords

• manned and unmanned container ships
• carrying capacity
• speed
• propulsion power
• fuel consumption
• emissions