CCS issues low-carbon development outlook for shipping

China Classification Society (CCS) released the “2023 Low-carbon Development Outlook for Shipping.”

Two years ago, CCS released the “2021 Low-carbon Development Outlook for Shipping” at the North Bund Forum to explore the path for the shipping industry to achieve emission reduction targets.

 In July 2023, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) passed the “2023 Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships” at the meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80), and proposed the goal that “to peak GHG emissions from international shipping as soon as possible and to reach net-zero GHG emissions by or around, i.e. close to, 2050, taking into account of different national circumstances,” demonstrating the IMO’s ambition to actively address global climate challenges.

 By focusing on the IMO 2023 greenhouse gas emission reduction strategy and the latest emission reduction policies for shipping, CCS “2023 Low-carbon Development Outlook for Shipping” provides analysis of the challenges and opportunities faced by relevant fields as well as evaluation of the applicability and application prospects of major emission reduction plans, explores the low-carbon development path of the industry, and proposes recommendations on optimal emission reduction solutions for typical ships.

 CCS released the “Guidelines for Implementation of IMO Requirements for Safe Return To Port and Orderly Evacuation” in 2019. In order to address a series of issues such as systematic implementation of safe-return-to-port, lack of implementation tools, cross-unit and cross-profession coordination, huge system workload, etc., the CCS cruise ship team has independently developed a safe-return-to-port system evaluation software with independent intellectual property rights (COMPASS-SAP) after 5 years of dedicated research by focusing on the requirements of the guidelines.

 This software adopts a modular design approach to develop server/client management modules, ship model construction modules, system model construction modules, evaluation and calculation modules, evaluation result viewing modules, and report output modules, etc. Based on the latest QT and ZMQ frameworks, the software adopts a server/client architecture to support multi-user collaborative work, read NAPA/CAD files, and output reports in both Chinese and English. It has such functions as automatically traversing accident scenarios, automatically calculating and evaluating important systems for safe-return-to-port, and automatically generating evaluation reports. In addition, it can also output data related to crew manual operations required for emergency response to safe-return-to-port of ships.

 In response to the industry requirements for the design and construction of large and medium-sized luxury cruise ships in China, the CCS cruise ship team has developed the “Application Guidelines for Evacuation Analysis for Passenger Ships”, which specifies the benchmark scenarios, general requirements, and calculation methods for simplified evacuation analysis and advanced evacuation analysis. The Guidelines have also provided general requirements for personnel evacuation analysis in other specific applications, providing guidance for the design and safety risk assessment of passenger ships.

 CCS has also developed a passenger ship personnel evacuation analysis software (COMPASS-EVA) with fully independent intellectual property rights. This software not only supports personnel evacuation analysis in benchmark scenarios, but also supports the analysis of the impact of ship longitudinal/transverse inclination and fire hazards on personnel evacuation in case of water ingress, and it can also carry out personnel evacuation analysis in complex scenarios.

This software can accurately depict the layout of ship compartments, evacuation facilities, and micro movement characteristics of personnel. It has a visual operation and editing interface, supports input and output of engineering files, CAD drawing files, and personnel data files, etc., supports dynamic display of simulation processes, and automatically outputs calculation analysis reports.

 The evaluation report output by this software meets the requirements of the IMO Circular MSC.1/Circ.1533. This software can provide technical consulting services for cruise ship design, including evacuation analysis and evaluation, design and layout optimization, as well as personnel evacuation analysis and safety assessment in fire, etc. to jointly safeguard the bottom line of maritime life safety. Currently, the guidelines and software for personnel evacuation analysis have been applied to the design and evaluation of large and medium-sized cruise ships, and ro-ro passenger ship, etc.