Unifeeder A/S and We4Sea B.V. have signed a cooperation agreement to roll-out the We4Sea Digital Twin based performance monitoring solution across Unifeeder’s fleet. The aim is to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of the ships.

The Unifeeder Group is an integrated logistics company with the largest feeder network and rapidly growing shortsea business in Europe, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia region with connectivity to more than 150 ports.

Unifeeder plays a critical role as a facilitator of integrated global and regional supply chains, simplifying the complex tasks of choosing and managing supply chains by providing efficient and sustainable transport solutions.

Michael Bonde, COO of Unifeeder, says: “Unifeeder wants to be an active participant in finding innovative solutions, through different partnerships and by being a business-driven IT organization. We are working with AI and machine learning platforms to provide significant operational benefits to our vessels and minimize the environmental impact.”

Digital Twin performance analysis

We4Sea focusses on increasing fuel efficiency and lower emissions of seagoing vessels by using a Digital Twin. The Twin provides shipowners and charterers with improved performance insights.

To generate the best results and increase fleet sustainability, Unifeeder and We4Sea have agreed to roll out the monitoring solution across the entire Unifeeder group fleet.

With its Digital Twin technology, We4Sea builds a digital sister vessel with all relevant technical characteristics of the real vessel. This data is enriched from other sources, such as data on speed, draught, weather conditions, wave heights, currents and wind.

Optimising vessel efficiency

The Digital Twin transforms this big data pool into actionable management information. The technology does not require onboard hardware installation and is therefore ideal for charterers, such as Unifeeder.

The solution supports full transparency. Charterers can continuously monitor fuel consumption, carbon and sulphur emissions of their chartered vessels in real-time via an online dashboard.

Dan Veen, Co-founder and CEO of We4Sea, says: “Realtime monitoring and reporting is the first step in improving fuel-efficiency. Optimising fuel consumption of Unifeeder’s fleet based on the findings will not only have a direct impact on financial results, but also improves operational efficiency and CO2 and SOx reduction. We are looking forward to working with Unifeeder and getting results fast.”