Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2020)

INTERVIEW: MARCIO CASTRO, WILSON SONS “Autonomy” and “Digitalization” are increasingly

Which solution(s) do you see has the most poten- discussed as a means to make vessel operations more tial to signif cantly impact your f eet’s emissions. ef cient. How has Wilson Sons invested in ‘digital’

Electrical projects would be the best solution in our opinion. technologies to increase vessel and f eet ef ciency.

But the battery technology must evolve in terms of time for charging and storage, allowing a higher autonomy. With diesel Since we launched our Operation Center responsible for the engines we have an autonomy of more than 30 days without re- tug dispatching we realized that we could use all the data gen- fueling, the tugs are ready for operations most of the time, and erated to make better decisions in our operation. Ten years sail long distances for moving between ports and for vessel assis- later, we are now using all that data to create products adding tance. Nowadays, electrical projects are feasible for very speci? c value to our operation. With our fully connected tugboats, we situations like a dedicated terminal towage with very few ma- are now creating a Big Data warehouse with information com- neuvers per day, and plugs for recharging available all the time. ing from its equipment to go even further. We aim to be able

LNG is also a good solution, but we will need to wait for a to reduce the unavailable time of our equipment, and increase better supply of the product. In Brazil, we have some small ef? ciency in fuel consumption, and safety.

scale LNG projects that are creating a good expectation for Besides that, we have reviewed all our operation processes, our industry. As soon as we have a reliable supply chain, this digitalizing them and eliminating all paper on board. This rev- solution will be on the table for new buildings. olution was promoted by our TugLab, a permanent initiative

Photo courtesy Wilson Sons 42 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2020

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