ABS published Insights into Future OSV Designs and Operations

The American Bureau of Shipping has published an advisory note regarding insights into future OSV designs and operations.

This document was published on 1 May 2023.

MARKET OUTLOOK: OPERATIONAL FLEXIBILITY

The trends for offshore support vessels (OSV) point to a carbon-neutral future with operations fully integrated with offshore fields, port infrastructure, and supply chains. They will need to be fully digitalized, connected, and highly automated to tie into their supporting ecosystems.

The future OSV will be configured and connected to provide clear operational visibility and the ability to track vessels, cargo, equipment, and people around the clock. At this level of connectivity, OSVs also will have the capacity to better manage the well-being of their crews.

The OSV of the future will be powered by ‘green’ alternative fuels – and alternate low-carbon transitions to energy-storage systems (ESS) and hybrid-propulsion solutions.

Future OSVs also will need to be equipped with systems designed to track emissions and improve operational performance. These ships will feature enhanced levels of autonomy.

The future OSV will be multi-functional – equipped to serve multiple offshore sectors - with larger accommodation spaces, heavy-lift cranes, helidecks, and streamlined hull forms, all designed to perform complex support operations.

Their specialized services include platform supply, anchor handling, subsea construction, installation, maintenance, repair, pipelaying, platform decommissioning, as well as support for diving systems and remotely operated vehicles (ROV).

The operational capabilities of OSVs may evolve to support many disparate sectors such as offshore wind, space missions (launches and recoveries), carbon capture (transport), and subsea mining.

One design concept currently on the industry’s drawing boards is for an OSV ‘mothership’ that would be crewed but also house a fleet of autonomous surface vessels, ROVs, and autonomous underwater vehicles used for operations such as repair and maintenance, cargo distribution, and subsea inspections.

The hulls of future OSVs will be designed to operate in higher sea states, to allow for greater multi-mission operational flexibility.

Offshore wind farms, which are getting larger and migrating into deeper waters, will demand higher operability requirements of OSV operators and their ships.

Transitioning the global OSV fleet to ‘zero-emissions’ operations will need to be accomplished while not only maintaining but improving the levels of safety, operational performance, and bunkering efficiency as current practices, without increasing risk.

The technologies are available to reduce CO2 emissions from current OSV fleets, through electrification and ‘green’ alternative fuels. Some of those technologies are mature, while others remain in discovery phases. These technologies are expected to prove suitable for both oil-and-gas and windfarm vessels.

Though the current carbon-reducing measures are encouraging (such as retrofitting batteries), there are limits to what can be accomplished with the existing fleet.

Ultimately, any further changes will be driven by regulation and whatever the industry and its suppliers can support.

To gain operational efficiency, new OSV designs are examining the potential of ‘tri-fuel’ technologies, such as dual-fuel or alternative ‘green’ fuel-ready concepts in combination with ESS.

The adoption of battery and battery-hybrid propulsion systems is expected to continue in tandem with a gradual electrification of the fleet.

Future sources of propulsion power could also become modular, a transition that would support the installation or retrofitting of power plants and systems upgrades.

As shipping escalates efforts to reduce its CO2 output, ‘green’ fuel pilot projects are underway, exploring the use of biofuels — biogas or bioLNG — ammonia, hydrogen, and methanol. Among these alternatives, hydrogen and fuel cells have gained considerable traction.

As some renewable fuels can lack the energy density required for longer voyages, studies on the future demand for additional refueling infrastructure are happening concurrently.

In many respects, establishing how quickly fueling infrastructure can be expanded will set the pace for the adoption of alternative fuels; it is not just about the fuels' compatibility and efficiency.

It is possible that other market-tested infrastructure could be used to provide renewable alternative fuels to the OSV sector.

One such strategy would provide the vessels with access to electrical power at ports connected to the grid.

Shore power and offshore charging buoys are evolving technologies, but they hold the potential to charge vessels with the renewable energy produced by offshore wind farms, for example.

Sustainable fuels aside, connectivity is a critical functionality that all future OSVs will need. The digital twin — a virtual representation that serves as the real-time counterpart of a physical asset or process — can help operators analyze disruptive events before they happen, increasing safety and operational efficiency.

Virtual performance simulations allow operational issues to be examined before they can go wrong, building dependability and operator confidence.

The emergence of 'digital twin' concepts supports real-time decision-making and planning.

Digital support is also increasingly available from other members in the OSV value chain. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) are now monitoring their components and equipment from the shore, via onboard sensors.

The popularity of these services is growing as quickly as they become available; charterers are already looking for more operational transparency, just as operators are seeking the kind of insights into an OSV's 'health' that can be provided by artificial intelligence (AI).

Digital products can offer visibility of everything from the performance of individual vessels or the fleet, to the operating state of each propulsion system and its components, and the well-being of the crew.

The future OSV will also incorporate more autonomous functionality, a transition that will begin apace when shipping builds more confidence in the decision-making ability of AI.

Class societies are collaborating with the OSV community on building the capabilities of the digital fleet, the reduction of crewing, increased autonomous functionality, and enabling the kind of remote or condition-based programs that increase operational dependability.

Industry stakeholders such as charters, owners, shipyards, designers, systems integrators, flag administrations, and class societies are working together to produce the next generation of OSVs.

This collaboration will bring environmentally sustainable and connected vessels, which can help to deliver business goals into the 2050s.

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