Wärtsilä, a global leader in smart technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets is well on its way to develop autonomous and eco friendly solutions for the marine sector. The company is closely collaborating with PSA Marine of Singapore. Under the collaboration, smart navigation and communication technologies have been developed and deployed on the harbour tug PSA Polaris. A new and intuitive Dynamic Positioning (DP) system has been deployed on the tug which can allow it to anchor virtually in the sea. The system is also capable of transmitting digital data to the propulsion system. This is a first step towards an autonomous tug which can handle routine activities on its own, leaving the tug master to address much more complex issues.

Wartsila and PSA Marine have also entered into an agreement to develope low emission and environmentally friendly propulsion packages. Under this agreement, one of PSA Marine’s dual fuel tugs is already operating on LNG. The two companies are further interested in developing hybrid and pure electric propulsion technologies for the marine sector. The intention is to integrate the deep capabilities developed in the IntelliTug project with new configurations and concepts of hybrid, electric, and other clean energy sources.

Mervin Ong, Managing Director, Wärtsilä Singapore informed, “The Acceleration Centre promotes innovation and joint projects with qualified partners in support of Wärtsilä’s ambition of a Smart Marine Ecosystem that will deliver huge advances in efficiency, safety, and environmental performance. Our on-going IntelliTug project was the Centre’s first co-created initiative together with PSA Marine, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Lloyd’s Register, and the Technology Centre for Offshore & Marine Singapore (TCOMS). This cooperation with PSA Marine is now being continued through this agreement, and we look forward to continuing our innovative and important work together” .

As per Peter Chew, Managing Director of PSA Marine, ” PSA Marine and Wärtsilä intend to lead and develop smart, scalable, and clean energy solutions for the longer term, as we play our part towards decarbonisation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”

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