Welsh Enterprise Awards 2018

SME NEWS / Welsh Enterprise Awards 2018 5 , Green Sea Guard provides solutions to coastguards, port authorities and ship-owners to monitor and control emissions and helping ship-owners to comply with the MARPOL regulations. We profile the firm to gain an insight into the range of services it has to offer in this vital space. Best Ship Emission Monitoring Specialists - Western Europe Today, many people are used to the fumes that lorries, buses and other vehicles produce in cities, and the sight of clouds of acrid smoke billowing from a rogue exhaust is comfortably rare today. When they read about city smog these days, people tend to assume that this is a side-effect of overcrowding and congestion, and that not a great deal can be done about it, short of abandoning our vehicles in favour of cycling and walking. However, many people will be shocked to hear that shipping, responsible for 95% of the visible goods we consume in the UK, has never been as strictly controlled as land- based transport. To improve the population’s health, the UN has promoted new restrictions on fuels through the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) but enforcement agencies have largely been daunted by the huge task of inspecting ships. Owners of compliant ships are frustrated by the slowness of the introduction of enforcement measures which unfairly benefit shipowners who have not yet invested in emissions reduction. Although some port authorities are introducing higher charges for ships that pollute more, and ports that are members of the Green Award scheme can offer discounts to ships using a variety of new techniques, indifference to current regulations seems widespread in the world of shipping. Since its inception in 2014 Green Sea Guard has helped to tackle these problems by providing coastguards, port authorities and other regulators with automated live data on the exhaust components of compliant vessels, allowing them to concentrate inspections on ships that flout the regulations. Shipowners and operators can reduce the risk of costly delays caused by inspections by installing a simple device in the ship’s exhaust, which transmits to a secure land-based server in real time. Authorised users can view results on smartphones or laptops, while the artificial intelligence embedded in the system interprets the trends. The firm’s system provides a secure method for shipowners to monitor the activity of the ship’s engines and the fuel they are consuming from the comfort of their own offices. Ship operators now have new tools with which to monitor engine efficiency, which increasingly allows them to schedule preventative maintenance, and to order spare parts ahead of time. Faults in combustion may be remedied as soon as the exhaust starts to show signs of incomplete burn, for example: prompt action reduces emissions of carbon monoxide, saving fuel. For the first time, shipowners can prioritise these types of maintenance according to the actual running costs associated directly with the fault. Green Sea Guard aims to extend the service interval for engines which it monitors by checking for the minute changes in the exhaust that indicate wear or malfunction. To date, every business case that Green Sea Guard has evaluated for its clients in this manner has resulted in a positive cost of ownership within 12 to 18 months, and some have shown results that are quite spectacular. Increasingly, large quoted companies are starting to worry even more about the environmental impact of their activities. Green Sea Guard’s capability extends not just to ensuring automated reporting on the EU’s new MRV regulations, but also to providing detailed carbon emissions data, based on actual measurement, rather than a calculated value that takes little account of the actual conditions faced by the ship on its voyages. Values for the shipping component in the supply chain can now be based on fact, not supposition. Tracking carbon emissions in detail in this way is surely a “must” for companies seeking to limit climate change. As such, the future looks bright for Green Sea Guard, as the firm’s solutions become increasingly vital, and moving forward it will continue to offer its clients cutting-edge support in this ever-evolving market. Green Sea Guard Ltd WEL18009 Company: Green Sea Guard Ltd Contact: Andrew Burgess Email: [email protected] Address: Plymouth Science Park, 1 Davy Road, Derriford, Plymouth, PL6 8BD, UK Phone: 0044 7583 149 226 Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreenSeaGuard ? LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/green-sea-guard-ltd Website: greenseaguard.com