The 2018 IMO Green House Gas strategy envisages a reduction in CO2 emissions per transport work of at least 40% by 2030 and a 70% reduction by 2050. The Wärtsilä Zero Emission Marine ecosystem has the goal of providing zero GHG emission solutions by 2050. Zero GHG emissions require a transfer to green fuels in shipping. Green fuels will be considerably more expensive than fossil fuels for a long time. This means that the energy for marine transport and operation work needs to be considerably reduced to be competitive to fossil fuel-operated vessels. Electrification will further require vastly improved energy efficiency, as the range of an electrical vessel is dependent on how well battery energy is transferred into transport work.
The DAZE research project aims at significant energy efficiency and marine system performance improve-ments using a data-driven process. By using data, energy efficiency can be improved, and the availability of systems can be increased by systematic, coordinated, and well-integrated use of data. The DAZE project will produce innovative ways of using a model-driven augmented machine learning (ML) and artificial intel-ligence (AI) approach to reach the next level of utilization of data produced on-board ships. In the Work Packages defined in the DAZE project algorithms and methodology for fault diagnostics, energy system modelling and optimizations, and virtual data sets generation are developed. This development is done is in parallel by research on data and computing management, with novel research on how edge and cloud operations should be coordinated and co-used in the maritime domain.
The DAZE project joins actors in research (Åbo Akademi University, University of Tampere, University of Vaasa, University of Oulu) with industrial partners developing and operating marine technology (Wärtsilä, Wapice, Deltamarin, Wasaline, Meriaura, Nextfour, Silo AI).