Coriolis Fuel Mass Flow Metering for Fishing Vessels

A fuel monitoring system has been tested on two boats of semi-pelagic pair trawlers in the Central Adriatic Sea. The system named CorFu meter (CorFu-m), conceived at CNR-ISMAR Ancona (Italy), consists of two mass flow sensors, one Multi Channel Recorder and one GPS data logger. The range of the engine power of the selected vessels is 1000-1200 HP, with LOA of around 25-35 m. Both vessels work with a gear of similar design and size, the differences between the two vessels are in the propeller design and the hull material: the first with a controllable pitch and a metal hull, the second with a fixed pitch and a wooden hull. A typical commercial round trip for a semi-pelagic trawler consists of several fishing operations (steaming, trawling sailing, etc.). The working time duration, the vessel speed, the total fuel consumption and the instant fuel rate were logged by the system. Fuel consumption rate [l/h] and vessel speed [kn] data were used to identify fuel consumption under different vessel-operating conditions. The highest fuel demands were during the trawling (130 l/h at 4.4 kn) and the steaming (100-130 l/h at 11 kn) phases. Fuel savings of up to 15% were obtained by bringing the navigation speed close to the best running point.