Danish maritime technology company ZeroNorth has formed a multilateral working group aimed at forging a new industry-wide standard to measure the accuracy of vessel fuel consumption models.

The working group will take advantage of new digital technologies to unlock even more precise fuel consumption predictions, delivering real knowledge and insight, and further enhancing vessel optimisation. Following the most recent meeting of the working group, a draft ‘Tier 1’ benchmark is now ready to be tested in the market to gather feedback.

Representatives from 11 organisations, including ZeroNorth, Cargill, UltraBulk, Western Bulk, Maersk Tankers, Bearing and Propulsion Dynamics met across several workshops to discuss and build the new standard.

Søren Meyer, CEO of ZeroNorth, said: “Once finalised, this benchmark will enable our industry to standardise how it measures for vessel fuel consumption. It’s also happening at exactly the right time. Digital solutions will be vital to underpin our sector’s decarbonisation efforts, so it’s important that we understand if fuel consumption models are accurate enough for voyage optimisation. The potential to accelerate our collective efforts to cut costs and reduce emissions is massive, so we look forward to more fruitful collaboration with the working group.”