Syroco weather routing solution to cut fuel consumption, CO2 emissions on MN Pelican

French shipping company Compagnie Maritime Nantaise – MN, a subsidiary of SOGESTRAN Group, has decided to deploy on its roll-on/roll-off containership a next-generation weather routing platform developed by Syroco, a compatriot climate tech startup supporting the energy transition of maritime transport.

The Syroco platform has been deployed on the MN Pelican in order to reduce the ship’s fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

As explained, the deployment is part of a global approach which includes the optimization of the routing and efficiency of the vessel but also better speed management and improvement of hull performance.

The MN Pelican, a 155-meter RoRo boxship, operates between Poole (UK) and Bilbao (Spain) on behalf of Brittany Ferries. In particular, the vessel crosses the Bay of Biscay where changing – and sometimes extreme – wind and cross swell conditions, as well as currents, can affect operations and impact performance of the vessel.

Leveraging precise weather and sea data, Syroco uses a digital twin of the vessel, driven by data and artificial intelligence, to calculate an optimized routing at any time. The proposed route, updated as often as necessary, takes into account operating constraints including arrival time and sea conditions that allow safe navigation.

“The freighter service operated by MN Pelican generates specific operational constraints,” Edouard Leveau, Technical Director of Compagnie Maritime Nantaise, said.

“In particular, the cross swells frequently encountered in the Bay of Biscay require the routes to be adapted to avoid rolling which could damage the trailers being transported. Syroco’s digital twin is able to incorporate these restrictions into its routing algorithms in order to deliver relevant recommendations to the crew.”

After six months of the improvement process, the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of the MN Pelican were reduced by 10.8% compared to the same periods in previous years.

Furthermore, projected over a full year, the carbon intensity index (CII) of the vessel has improved significantly and changed to a higher category.

“Our Company is innovative, and committed to the decarbonisation of maritime transport. The deployment of Syroco clearly fits into this framework. It allows us to provide our crews with latest generation routing and trip optimisation, which precisely evaluates the efficiency gains. Both the reduction in consumption already measured and the improvement of the CII index provide a valuable validation of the relevance of our approach,” Jérôme Navarro, General Manager of Compagnie Maritime Nantaise, commented.

“We are pleased that Compagnie Maritime Nantaise has chosen to work with Syroco to support the decarbonisation of its operations. This deployment made it possible to confirm the flexibility of the solution and its adaptability to specific operational constraints,” Alex Caizergues, President and co-founder of Syroco, concluded.

Last year, a wing sail was installed on the MN Pelican to be tested under real conditions between Poole and Bilbao as part of Michelin’s Wing Sail Mobility (WISAMO) project.