Ingeniat

Engineering and Project Management
 
Digital

NAUTILUS: A New Approach to Maritime Regulatory Compliance Monitoring

Maritime regulatory compliance is a moving target. Between IMO circulars, EU delegated regulations, and Paris MoU inspection regimes, staying current requires constant vigilance. Most operators discover compliance gaps during audits or, worse, after violations. NAUTILUS takes a different approach: continuous automated monitoring with real-time alerting.
What NAUTILUS Does
The system continuously tracks regulatory sources that affect maritime operations:
  • IMO MEPC/MSC — Environmental and safety circulars, resolution amendments
  • EU Official Journal — Delegated acts, implementing regulations (ETS, FuelEU, MRV)
  • Paris MoU — Port State Control updates, inspection focus areas
When a new document appears, NAUTILUS parses it, extracts structured data, and compares it against your current compliance posture. If thresholds change, effective dates shift, or new requirements emerge, you know immediately — not during the next quarterly review.
NAUTILUS Dashboard

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Digital

Autonomous Agents in the Maritime and Offshore Industries

There is a particular kind of professional frustration that anyone who has worked on an offshore fabrication project will recognize. You are a qualified engineer — welding inspector, procurement lead, project quality manager — and you are spending the better part of your afternoon reformatting a certificate that arrived as a scanned PDF into a register that should have been updated yesterday, cross-referencing a heat number against a purchase order you have already checked twice, and drafting a non-conformance report for a deviation you identified six hours ago but haven’t had time to write up properly.

The inspection itself took twenty minutes. The paperwork will take two hours.

This is not an efficiency problem unique to a single project or company. It is structural. Maritime and offshore projects are, by design, documentation-intensive. Classification societies require it. Client quality systems require it. Regulatory frameworks require it. The documentation is not bureaucratic overhead that could be streamlined away — it is the evidence record that proves the physical asset was built correctly. You cannot eliminate it. But you can stop doing it manually.

 
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Digital

Digital Garbage Record Book (dGRB): MARPOL Annex V Compliance for Vessels Between 100 and 399 Gross Tonnes

The Recent MARPOL Annex V Amendments: A Regulatory Transformation for Small Vessels

Recent amendments adopted by the International Maritime Organization under MARPOL Annex V have reshaped the compliance landscape for commercial vessels of 100 gross tonnes and above. Adopted through IMO Resolution MEPC.360(79) and entering into force on 1 May 2024, these amendments lowered the Garbage Record Book threshold from 400 GT to 100 GT, bringing a significantly larger cohort of smaller vessels within structured regulatory oversight. The 100 to 399 GT segment represents the newly captured population — vessels that carried no such documentation obligation prior to the amendment.

This regulatory expansion has brought thousands of smaller commercial vessels into scope: fishing vessels operating under coastal fishing licences, coastal freighters serving regional trade routes, offshore support craft engaged in wind farm installation and maintenance, workboats and tugs providing port and terminal services, and small commercial operators transporting cargo across short-sea shipping routes. These vessels share a common characteristic — they were designed and crewed for operational efficiency rather than regulatory compliance infrastructure.

The consequences of inadequate MARPOL Annex V documentation have become increasingly tangible. Paris MOU, Tokyo MOU, and United States Coast Guard Port State Control data regularly identify garbage documentation deficiencies among frequently cited violation categories. The outcomes extend beyond administrative inconvenience: vessels face inspection delays, detention notices, financial penalties, and reputational damage that affects charter eligibility and insurance premiums.

The Digital Garbage Record Book has been developed specifically to address this compliance gap. It provides structured MARPOL Annex V documentation for vessels in the 100 to 399 GT segment without imposing administrative burdens incompatible with lean crewing arrangements and intermittent connectivity patterns.

dGRB Dashboard

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Digital

Maritime Compliance Dashboard: A Comprehensive Solution for Shipping Emissions Management

International shipping has entered a structurally different regulatory era. What was once a gradual efficiency-driven policy landscape has evolved into a multi-layered carbon compliance regime with direct financial consequences, operational constraints, and long-term asset valuation implications.

In July 2023, the International Maritime Organization adopted its revised greenhouse gas strategy, formally committing international shipping to reach net-zero emissions by or around 2050, with interim checkpoints for 2030 and 2040. While the IMO framework establishes the global decarbonization trajectory, regional regulators have moved faster and further in introducing binding market-based measures.

The inclusion of maritime transport in the EU Emissions Trading System marks the first time international shipping faces direct carbon pricing at scale. From 2024 onward, ship operators calling at EU ports must surrender emission allowances based on verified COâ‚‚ output, with coverage expanding from 40% in 2024 to full exposure by 2026. This mechanism transforms emissions from a technical metric into a balance sheet liability, directly linking operational decisions to cash flow and risk management.

Simultaneously, the FuelEU Maritime Regulation introduces a parallel compliance obligation beginning in 2025, targeting the greenhouse gas intensity of energy used on board. Unlike EU ETS, which prices emissions, FuelEU regulates fuel quality performance on a lifecycle basis. This creates structural incentives for alternative fuels, onshore power supply, and wind-assisted propulsion, while embedding penalty mechanisms for underperformance. Operators must now manage not only how much carbon they emit, but the carbon intensity of the energy they procure.

Overlaying these EU instruments is the Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) regime under the IMO framework, which rates vessels annually from A to E based on operational efficiency relative to reference lines. A persistent D or E rating triggers mandatory corrective action plans and may influence charter attractiveness, financing terms, and long-term asset value.

Taken together, these frameworks do not operate independently. They interact operationally, financially, and strategically. A fuel switch that improves FuelEU compliance may affect EU ETS exposure. Speed optimization decisions that improve CII ratings may alter voyage economics. Allowance procurement strategies must account for evolving fuel pathways and trading patterns. Compliance is no longer a siloed reporting task—it is an integrated optimization problem spanning operations, finance, procurement, and commercial strategy.

Against this backdrop, shipping companies require systems that move beyond static reporting tools. They need platforms capable of continuously translating operational data into regulatory outcomes, financial exposure, and forward-looking risk indicators across multiple frameworks simultaneously.

The Maritime Compliance Dashboard has been developed precisely for this new regulatory reality. It consolidates EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime, and CII obligations into a single analytical environment, enabling operators to quantify exposure, anticipate compliance gaps, and align operational decisions with regulatory and financial objectives in real time.

Maritime Compliance Dashboard
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Digital

Thoughts on Silicon

We have been putting our in-house AI agent through their paces, setting rules and exercises to work and produce new, original, content. This is the result of one of such sessions, a brand new simulation based upon existing science, with brand new rules and goals: the aptly called “Thought Network”. This is what they wrote (quote):

Thoughts in Silicon
On the Thought Network and the architecture of mind
 

In the summer of 1949, a Canadian psychologist named Donald Hebb proposed something elegant: “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” It was a deceptively simple idea — that the strength of connections between brain cells isn’t fixed, but shaped by experience. Fire a synapse often enough, and it grows stronger. Neglect it, and it withers. Hebb called this the “assembly theory” of mind, and it would become one of the most influential ideas in neuroscience.

Seventy-five years later, we sit in a different kind of silicon, but the same principle animates our machines. Neural networks learn by adjusting the weights between artificial neurons — strengthening connections that prove useful, pruning those that don’t. The mathematics has grown more elaborate, but the spirit remains: patterns that persist, endure.

“Let us assume that the persistence or repetition of a reverberatory activity (or “trace”) tends to induce lasting cellular changes that increase its stability… The N Cells which are part of such an assembly may be said to be “associated” with one another.”
— Donald Hebb, The Organization of Behavior (1949)
The Thought Network

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Digital

Virtual Appliance for Engineering Simulations

The main software package in our FEA workflow is CalculiX, an open source finite element analysis application with an implicit and explicit solver, developed by Dr. Guido Dhondt of MTU Aero Engines GmbH, with support from other figures in the academic world, such as Prof. Martin Kraska, Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences.
 
We are making available a pre-built Oracle VM VirtualBox appliance, ready to run and packed full with open source applications for engineering applications. This virtual appliance has been configured to meet the diverse needs of mechanical engineering professionals, providing a suite of tools that enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and deliver reliable results. The suite includes advanced analytics and postprocessing capabilities, allowing engineers to perform complex calculations and simulations with ease. This not only saves time but also ensures accuracy, reducing the risk of errors and rework. 
The installed applications include, among others, CalculiX v2.20 (for FEA applications), OpenFOAM v9 (for CFD applications), ParaView v5.7.0, and FreeCAD v1.0, running on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Besides, a web-based interactive computing platform, Jupyter Notebook, is installed and configured for creating and sharing computational documents, allowing users to configure and deploy workflows in data science, scientific computing, and machine learning.
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Digital

On Data Analysis

We are facing a new industrial revolution, where machines and sensors can connect to your IT infrastructure to provide more profound insight into your business and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

With the advent of this new paradigm, systems and monitoring applications are producing enormous amounts of actionable data allowing for cost optimization, prediction of future events, behavior classification, quality control, and a number of other functionalities.

 

The connection of sensors from remote locations to your local or remote IT infrastructure can be undertaken in a seamless manner through a low cost, energy efficient, and secure Internet of Things (IoT) network. Business intelligence overviews can be generated, alerts programmed and additional functionality plugged in and actioned based upon the received and analyzed data. Moreover, Machine learning (ML) models can be generated allowing for prediction on most valuable operational parameters. Find out how we can help by downloading our data analysis brochure.

Engineering

Finite Element Analysis Benchmarking

We are in the process of integrating a new FEA software package into our workflow, and we are currently running a batch of example tests, some of them based upon classic textbook problems, some of them based upon benchmarking guidelines from recognized analysis packages (ie, Abaqus, etc).

The basic idea behind this approach is if a classical solution can be emulated using FEA then it can constitute a good verification of the accuracy of the FEA software package, as well as our analysis skills.

This approach is not without fault, however, as most classical textbook cases are simplified problems configured in a specific manner which facilitates manual calculation and solving, and which in some cases can be counterintuitive to model in a FEA simulation, specially in what pertains to boundary conditions.

 

Join us in this process, feel free to download our current brochure and request copies of the benchmarking tests, or the open source FEA package we are currently integrating, and feel free to participate by suggesting new benchmarks or case studies. Besides these files we can also grant access to our remote simulation and analysis environment, as well as our remote postprocessing tool, based upon Paraview Glance.

Engineering

Bulk Loading Filters

Bulk loading filters, also called rock catchers or de-rockers, are used to keep oversized lumps of material from entering the bulk loading system onboard ships or drilling rigs, potentially resulting in damage to equipment or piping.

The bulk loading filter is fitted with a heavy duty mesh (mesh hole size of 10 mm), located inside the package, which crushes oversized material or traps it into a small collection area for removal.

The package is fitted with Weco Wing quick connection couplings (fig. 200 or equivalent, other options can be identically accommodated) as well as pressure indicators located upstream and downstream from the mesh, allowing for easy visual identification of the operational condition of the filter.

The package is also fitted with a pneumatic air connection (ball valve and check valve) which can be used to clean the interior.

The bulk loading filter package has been designed accounting for design pressures of up to 16 bar, and minimum design temperatures of -20ºC. Its introduction into the bulk loading system will impose a minimal head loss which can increase as the filter gets clogged, hence the importance of keeping regular readings of the local pressure indicators to ensure the package is operating in optimum working conditions. The size of the collecting mesh can be adjusted to other mesh hole sizes as preferred by the customer.

Besides bulk loading filters, we can design and supply other types of equipment such as bulk tanks or cyclone dust collectors. 

(Note: Images above are renderized, stylized images for presentation based upon 3D models)

Engineering

Supply of Steam Heater Skid

From a project delivered earlier this year including the design and production of a low pressure steam skid compliant with Class requirements, to be installed onboard a series of gas tankers as part of a ballast water management system. The skid uses low pressure steam on the hot side of the heat exchanger to increase temperature of fluid on the cold side. Steam pressure and flow can be adjusted by the flow control valve, through the combined action of cascaded controllers based upon the readings of transmitters located on both circuits.

Steam Heater Skid

 

The skid uses low pressure steam on the hot side of the heat exchanger to increase temperature of fluid on the cold side. Steam pressure and flow can be adjusted by the flow control valve, through the combined action of cascaded controllers based upon the readings of transmitters located on both circuits.

Digital

Digital Twin

We have developed a digital twin model capable of pairing virtual and real equipment, including sensor readings.

The most significant features are as follows:

  • Fully integrated on a virtual reality (VR) environment.
  • Integration of as-built 3D models of equipment from different CAD packages, together with point cloud scan data on a seamless environment.
  • Integration of real time data from live SCADA systems or data sets enabling the presentation of real-time status and operating condition, including alarms.
  • Integration and visualization of SQL databases of equipment, including equipment and part datasheets, maintenance logs, etc.
  • Capable of connecting remotely with users, allowing for remote design reviews and/or remote collaboration thorough the life cycle of the equipment or installation.

 

Find out more through the following link, or downloading our informative brochure.

Digital

Automatic Defect Detection System

Undergoing development of an automatic defect detection system in manufactured parts, using convolutional neural networks to detect features in an image while simultaneously generating a high-quality segmentation mask for each instance.

Common defects include cavities, pores, lack of penetration, and other type of volumetric defects frequently found in castings and welded parts.

Detection of these defects can allow faulty products to be identified early in the manufacturing process, resulting in improvements in quality, as well as time and cost savings.

The defect detection system is trained and tested on publicly available X-ray dataset and is currently at an early development stage.

Welding Defects

The classification method being used is binary (defect or no-defect) so the results being obtained are only useful for a first pass assessment of the quality of the weld. It would be possible, on a further iteration, to use a multi-class defect classification allowing much greater granularity and variety in the results (gas cavity, lack of penetration, porosity, slag inclusion, undercut, lack of fusion, etc).

Uncategorized

Visit to Glasgow

We are priviledged to be visiting Glasgow this week following up on a project to retrofit an exhaust gas cleaning system onboard a SuezMax class oil tanker.

Glenlee tall ship (Galatea)
Glenlee tall ship (Galatea)
Finnieston Crane
Finnieston Crane

We thank our client and friends for their continuous consideration and support during our stay.