New collaboration powers Maersk Tankers and Cargill-invested ZeroNorth’s vessel optimization software with Spire’s data, driving impactful revenue and sustainability decision-making

Maritime technology company ZeroNorth and leading global satellite and data company Spire Maritime have today announced a new partnership that powers up ZeroNorth’s vessel optimization software Optimise with Spire’s world-leading maritime AIS and weather data.

ZeroNorth’s Optimise software supports operators of ‘tramp’ ships – those with no fixed route or schedule – to increase their revenue and cut emissions by using vast amounts of marine data to make recommendations on vessel speed and when, where and what to refuel a vessel with, turning data into action. Cumulatively, these decisions can generate significant emissions savings and increase revenue for a ship operator, because operating a vessel at the right speed at any given moment throughout a voyage can reduce fuel consumption.

Weather and sea condition have huge implications on vessel efficiency. Having an accurate picture of the open ocean is therefore vital for both realizing better safety outcomes and improving the performance of the commercial shipping fleet.

Currently, outside of the Paris Climate Agreement, the global shipping industry is under considerable pressure to find solutions to decarbonize, improve its sustainability and reduce its impact on the environment. International shipping is responsible for approximately 2.5% of global CO2 emissions – roughly equivalent to Germany’s annual emissions output.

If all 33,000 vessels in the global tanker and dry bulk fleet were using Optimise, more than 50 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions would be eliminated over the next five years.

The new partnership with Spire means that Optimise and its emissions-saving recommendations will be powered up by Spire’s market-leading weather and vessel location, or AIS, data. Thanks to a combination of satellite and terrestrial technologies, the data gathered by Spire is some of the most comprehensive on the market.

While weather stations and sensors are widespread on land, the same cannot be said for open oceans. Spire overcomes this limitation by using remote sensing techniques such as satellite radio occultation. It allows the capture of detailed temperature, humidity, and pressure information across the entire planet, including our vast oceans’ under-observed corners. The resulting boost to weather prediction is beneficial to both the global maritime industry and global forecast models.

Speaking on the announcement, Søren Meyer, CEO, ZeroNorth, said: “We believe that powering up Optimise with this partnership with Spire Maritime is an important moment in shipping’s decarbonization journey. Profitably reducing shipping’s environmental impact is a decisive and era-defining issue that will require widespread innovation and collaboration.

“Enabling a more sustainable industry through digitalization is in ZeroNorth’s DNA, and we are excited that this new partnership will further bolster Optimise’s ability to increase revenues and cut emissions for some of the most important cargo ships trading around the world. We are excited to collaborate further with Spire to achieve our joint mission of a cleaner, greener shipping industry.”

Simon van den Dries, General Manager, Spire Maritime, added: “We are extremely proud to announce this partnership with ZeroNorth. The challenge of decarbonizing the engine of world trade is not a small one, but collaborations such as this allow us to champion these causes and prove to the market that technological alignment is a powerful tool to tackle the emergent challenges we all face.”

Both organizations have committed to constantly improve the outcomes of the partnership. Spire’s satellites, for example, have the capacity for continual software improvements to hone the quality of data input being provided into Optimise. Conversely, Optimise’s algorithm will also further develop as it receives more quality data. This means that this partnership effectively generates both improved data input as well as an improved data output, showing the power of digitalization as a force to generate real change.