• In addition to its solutions for EU ETS and CII compliance, the German software company will also be offering one for the FuelEU Maritime regulation, which comes into force next year. The modules for the individual regulations can be booked separately or in combination.
• The zero44 software is aimed at ship owners, ship managers and charterers.
• An official presentation of the new FuelEU Maritime solution will take place on 4 September at the SMM.The second major EU regulation for the decarbonisation of shipping will come into force: FuelEU Maritime. The aim is to promote the use and production of sustainable fuels. Companies that exceed the permitted future greenhouse gas intensities with their vessels will have to pay penalties. These will increase over the next few years. None of the fossil fuels traditionally used fulfill the requirements of the regulation.Companies can decide for themselves which paths to compliance they want to take. This freedom of choice makes sense, but is currently causing a lot of confusion. Possible compliance options include pooling (vessels are mathematically combined in such a way that they jointly achieve the greenhouse gas values; this is possible within a fleet, but also in combination with the vessels of other companies). Borrowing and banking are also options: with borrowing, operators ‘borrow’ expected future over-achievement of targets (called “compliance balance surplus”) to compensate for current deficits. With banking, if they fall short of the targets in the reporting year, they can carry this difference forward to the following year. Companies can of course also integrate biofuels into their fuel mix in order to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of their vessels. And finally, there is also the option of simply paying any penalties incurred and not reducing greenhouse gas intensity. Shipping companies can pass these penalties on to charterers and customers.

  Which option is the best? The answer depends on many parameters that are constantly changing. These include volatile fuel prices, schedule changes for vessels, varying availability of fuel in different ports and agreements in charter and ship management contracts.

  zero44’s software solution creates full transparency and identifies the most economically viable options

  Making informed, economically sensible decisions is not easy with such complexity. With the right technology, however, it is possible and takes the pressure off ship owners, ship managers and charterers. For this reason, the software company zero44 is now launching a solution that offers just that.

The new software helps ship owners, ship managers and charterers to find an optimal compliance strategy for FuelEU Maritime. It can be used individually or in combination with zero44’s software modules for EU ETS and CII compliance and is therefore also able to identify an overall superior strategy that takes into account CII, EU ETS and FuelEU effects.

The FuelEU Maritime product utilises the proven zero44 data model. This model uses historical ship performance data and machine learning to predict future consumption and emissions and evaluate different fuel options. Users can then compare all options in the zero44 dashboard: the amount of a possible penalty payment, alternative biofuel costs, pooling options and other alternatives. If pooling is a sensible strategy, zero44 also offers a pooling marketplace between its customers and third parties. As always, zero44 places great emphasis on ensuring that users have all the important parameters and decision-making aids at a glance, but in a clear, structured and easy-to-understand way. The aim is to make dealing with the new regulation as easy as possible.

Feedback from several zero44 customers, including MPC Container Ships, Minship Shipmanagement and Union Bulk, was incorporated into the product development. This served to orientate the software to the real needs of companies right from the start.

Friederike Hesse, Co-Founder and Managing Director of zero44, said: “Some players in our industry are currently giving the impression that pooling is the best way to achieve FuelEU compliance. This is far too short-sighted and does not do justice to the complexity of FuelEU Maritime and the volatility of the market environment. Instead, the goal must be for every shipping company, every ship manager and every charterer to have a full overview of all economic parameters at all times. Only on this basis can truly informed decisions be made – and whether these ultimately fall in favour of pooling, penalty payments or another method will always change depending on the context.”

zero44 will present the first version of its FuelEU Maritime product at SMM Hamburg on 4 September. Companies can book the product individually or in combination with zero44’s proven product modules for EU ETS and CII compliance