Optimization of fuel consumption rate for tugboat in relation to port operations

Abstract

Operational cost is an essential element in evaluation of productivity of a port. An increase or decrease in operational cost will resembles the effectiveness of port operations. Tugboats are widely used in maritime ports for variety uses. The operation of tugboat consumes high expenses, especially in terms of fuel. This issue had been trending in maritime field as port authorities are facing this problem at critical level. In Malaysia, this problem had been identified almost in all the ports. Thus, this study was conducted to identify the key factors that contribute to the high consumption rate of a tugboat in operation. The data used to establish the benchmark values has been collected from Penang Port. The collected set of data was analyzed using EXCEL, statistical software as an analyzing tool and respective graphs and charts were plotted to assist the data analysis. The graphs plotted were then used to study the relationship in between fuel consumption rate against selected parameters. Factors contributing to high consumption rate were identified and suggestion to cut down the tugboat's operational cost was proposed. Besides that, other practical measures on optimizing tugboat operation for better fuel consumption were also discussed.