Page 69: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2019)

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CAT Targets Cruise for its Multi-Engine Optimizer

Caterpillar is touting its Multi-Engine

Cat’s MEO

Optimizer (MEO) as a solution for ex- isting cruise ships to burn less fuel, run cleaner, keep uptime and reliability high while keeping costs down.

Caterpillar’s MEO is designed to lay over the top of a vessel’s existing power management system, using proprietary performance maps and control algo- rithms to advise the system on which engines to operate and at what load. The second, Asset Intelligence (AI), is a total vessel monitoring solution that collects and analyzes data from onboard systems, then provides recommendations on when and how to take action. Speci? cally Cat contends that MEO and AI can:

Images courtesy Caterpillar 1. Decrease fuel consumption and costs. operation, resulting in fewer actual en- scheduled downtime — or in some cas-

It takes a lot of fuel to power today’s gine hours over the same time span. That es, even scheduled downtime — runs the ships — more than a billion dollars 2. Lower emissions extends maintenance and overhaul inter- risk of losing a voyage. Engine reliability worth annually for some larger cruise

The current cruise ship order book vals. You can also use MEO to balance is more critical than ever. AI uses pattern lines. A 2-3 percent saving on a fuel bill could mean saving tens of millions of includes a number of new vessels with engine use by hours or fuel, either to syn- recognition to learn about your ships’ liqui? ed natural gas (LNG) as their pri- chronize overhaul intervals (so you can systems so it can predict failures before dollars without making a change to en- mary fuel source to reduce emissions. do all the work during one shutdown) or they happen. That means your crew can gines or vessel operations. MEO is de- signed to make that possible by using That doesn’t help existing vessels, as stagger intervals (so you can continue take action immediately to ? x an issue, repowering a cruise ship is dif? cult due cruising without needing a shutdown at and if any parts are needed, you can have fuel maps to determine the best combi- to the location of the engines, and con- all). AI is designed to allow owners to them waiting in the right port. In addi- nation of engines and enabling dynamic asymmetrical load allocation: simply verting to LNG is even more of a chal- move from hours-based to needs-based tion to the data and alerts it provides on lenge because of the need for tanks to maintenance schedules. It tracks all the board, AI also sends additional analytics put, the ability to operate those engines store the liquid. MEO is designed to help data generated by a ships’ systems, and ashore, where an engineering team can at independent load factors. Precise fuel cruise owners run current engines more can tell when maintenance and repairs review to get ahead of problems.

? ow measuring for each individual en- ef? ciently or AI to monitor and improve are actually required.

gine results in the lowest possible fuel fuel burn — or both — to decrease fuel

Discover MEO on MR TV consumption for the entire system. AI consumption. For every liter of diesel 4. Improve reliability

Caterpillar executive Dra Wiersema helps reduce fuel burn by analyzing fuel

The days of ships operating with two discusses the MEO value proposition on fuel saved, 2.68 kg of CO2 is eliminated.

and energy performance on board your or three additional main engines are long

MR TV: ships, identifying operational practices 3. Optimize maintenance gone. Due to cost pressures, most cruise www.marinelink.com/videos/video/ and component maintenance issues that the-big-virtual-engine-100173

MEO is designed to help owners con- lines no longer carry as much redundant conspire to increase fuel consumption solidate more power into every hour of power on board. That means any un- www.marinelink.com 69

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