EEDI Index Assessment and GHG Emission Reduction Measures

By Yang Shizhi

The mandatory enforcement of ship efficiency regulation puts forward even higher requirements for ship design, production techniques, auxiliary equipment and technical application of new energy. China is a major shipbuilding and shipping nation, the mandatory implementation of measures across the world to reduce GHG emission from shipping will certainly have huge infl uence on Chinese relevant industries.

EEDI is an index to measure the effi ciency of ship design and construction, i.e. to calculate CO2emission of the fuel consumed by the propulsion and supporting power required to enable a ship to navigate at the defined speed under the condition of the largest design loading.The higher the EEDI, the higher the ship consumes energy. The current EEDI benchmark represents the will of developed countries, it also reflects the developed countries’ use of various means to limit the development of the shipbuilding industry of developing countries by increasing the entry threshold for international ships to make the west be favorable for shipbuilding and auxiliary equipment market. ABB’s order taken from the east Asia fully represents the industry rule of science creating value and power of voice coming from technical power. For china, the introduction of ship efficiency rules is both a challenge and an opportunity.

The discussion in IMO about reduction measures for GHG emission from shipping mainly focuses on three aspects:technology, operation and market mechanism.Optimization of ship hull linetype, antidrag of air film,optimization of propulsion unit and propeller (rotating propellers, honeycomb duct, reducing wake point,improving stream), engine efficiency increase, using cold ironing, waste heat recovery, using new energy and alternative fuel, all these technical measures are the major means to reduce GHG emission by reducing fundamentally the GHG emission from shipping.

Based on current hardware conditions, fleet steam slowing, optimization of auxiliary engine power supply system, weather navigation, JIT logistic management,promotion of handling effi ciency, maintenance of ship hull are meansures to increase operation efficiency through more efficient management and operation with the ultimate aim to reduce GHG emission. MEPC.1/Circ.683 provides guidance for ships and shipping companies to choose the proper reduction measures and to develop SEEMP. The outcome of the implementation will be known by calculating the operation effi ciency index using the EEOI formular set up in MEPC.1/Circ.684.

The market-based mechanism can be used to prompt polluters to directly or indirectly reduce GHG emission through appropriate encouraging or punishing economic means, which mainly include carbon tax, GHG compensation funds and trading machnasim. It is benefitial to increase the motive to reduce emission and minimize the cost of emission reduction. It is therefore the important supplement to technical and operational measures to reduce emission.