determination of an economical shipping route considering the effects of sea state for lower fuel consumption

With increases in international oil prices, the proportion of fuel cost to the operational costs of a ship is currently increasing. To reduce fuel cost, a method for determining an economical route for a ship based on the acquisition of the sea state and the estimation of fuel consumption is proposed. The proposed method consists of three items. The first item is to acquire the sea state information in real time. The second item is to estimate the fuel consumption of a ship according to the sea state. The last item is to find an economical route for minimal fuel consumption based on the previous two items. To evaluate the applicability of the proposed method, it was applied to routing problems in various ocean areas. The result shows that the proposed method can yield economical ship routes that minimize fuel consumption. The results of this study can contribute to energy savings for environmentally friendly ships.