Optimizing water consumption: Advanced analytics enabling annual savings of up to $5M

Challenge

Maintaining sufficient quantities of potable water onboard an underway vessel is one of the most critical elements to ensure the safety of crew members and safe operation of the vessel itself. While sea water may be satisfactory for washing decks and flushing toilets, fresh water must be maintained for human consumption and power generation. Crew members face multiple operational challenges in optimizing potable water quantity planning, including trip variable such as voyage length, consumptions rates, passenger manifests, and fuel costs. If optimized and managed correctly, the savings can be tremendous for ship operators. For example, the weight and space created by eliminating excess water tanks can be used to store extra fuel or cargo, leading to millions of dollars in additional savings per year.

Solution

Arundo partnered with a global shipping company to optimize the potable water availability process across its fleet of European vessels. Before vessel departure, the Arundo solution interrogates multiple onboard data sources to analyze variables such as ship type (e.g. bulk carrier, container ship), the expected number of crew and passengers, voyage length, and onboard system capability to generate potable water to predict the volume of potable water required for the voyage.

During the voyage, the system uses live onboard sensor data to track actual potable water consumption, temperature patterns, and travel speed to adjust bunkering and docking locations as needed. When deviations occur, crew members receive early warning alerts and are rerouted to nearby distilling sites, ensuring the safety of all crew and passengers aboard. The Arundo system's algorithms continue to adapt and gain accuracy with each voyage.

Results

Arundo Enterprise was tested on a fleet of seven client ships across both short and long-haul voyages. We safely reduced the ships’ on-vessel water quantity by 15%, leading to significantly decreased fuel usage and increased cargo space. Each ship could save more than of $200,000 a year, and the customer expects to save upwards of $5M annual operating costs. In addition to cost savings, the client realized a substantial environmental benefit, leading to a meaningful gain in its sustainability target.

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