ISO 19030 Standard on the Way

A new standard for the maritime sector has been announced. ISO 19030 has been published by the International Organization for Standardization.

ISO 19030 is a standard developed to measure the effectiveness of options that improve propeller and hull performance. The standard was prepared by ISO for the maritime sector. Putting it into use is expected to cut carbon emissions from ships by 10% and deliver 30 billion dollars in additional fuel savings. It will also bring transparency to measurement methods that the industry had been lacking, and will play a key role in improving ship energy efficiency.

The standard uses a two-part methodological approach. The first part, ISO 19030-2, is the default measurement method with the strictest conditions and the highest measurement accuracy. The second part, ISO 19030-3, allows alternative methods to broaden the standard's applicability. ISO spent more than three years and over 12,000 hours developing the standard.

Fouled hull and propeller performance accounts for 10% of global shipping costs. Although effective options exist to improve performance, until now there has been no standard or unified measurement method to capture return on investment. ISO 19030 addresses this by defining hull and propeller repair, maintenance, and retrofit practices and by setting out the measurement methodology for them. ISO has led the international working group of 53 experts since 2013 to deliver an accurate, applicable standard. The working group includes shipyards, ship owners, paint manufacturers, performance monitoring firms, and research institutions.

The Hull Performance concept, introduced to the market in 2011, is built around minimizing speed loss over a defined period to deliver peak efficiency. The performance measurement method tracks how adjustments between the power delivered to the propeller and the vessel's speed affect the ship's energy quality, through a dedicated monitoring mechanism. This method forms the basis of the new ISO standard.

Three separate studies found that, over a 60-month voyage period, vessels using a standard antifouling coating lose an average of 5.9% in speed. The written guarantee of the concept keeps speed loss over 60 months to a maximum of 1.5%. Long-term performance gains achieved through HPS are supported with data delivered to ship owners.