Blue Visby Solution prototype trials

One global case study for vessel call and traffic optimization is the Blue Visby Solution prototype trials with CBH Group, a major grain exporter operating in Western Australia. These trials demonstrate how coordinated arrival time optimization can cut fuel use and emissions without changing ship hardware or port infrastructure.

Location and dates

The trials took place in March and April 2024 on ballast voyages to CBH Group's Kwinana Grain Terminal near Perth. Two bulk carriers, M/V Gerdt Oldendorff and M/V Begonia, participated in the first prototype trials, sailing on ballast legs toward Kwinana. Results were announced in a Blue Visby press release on 17 May 2024. In December 2024, CBH announced that it had become the first commercial customer of the Blue Visby Solution (Blue Visby, n.d.). (Blue Visby, 2024a)

Summary of the Blue Visby Solution

Blue Visby targets the entrenched “sail fast, then wait” pattern where ships steam at near-service speed regardless of berth readiness, then sit at anchor burning fuel and generating emissions (Ship and Bunker, 2023). Its optimization platform:

• Monitors all ships bound for the same port.
• Takes into account each vessel’s performance characteristics, port congestion forecasts and environmental conditions (weather, currents, tides, bathymetry).
• Assigns each ship a dynamically optimized “Target Arrival Time” that preserves its place in the queue but eliminates unnecessary racing and waiting.

The operational system was tested in the CBH trials with both the vessels and the software systems, and the parties agreed the benchmark used for benefit sharing. (Blue Visby, 2024a)

A key innovation is Blue GA, a contractual “general average” -style mechanism that shares the costs and benefits on each voyage between owners, charterers and cargo interests. This directly addresses split incentives that usually prevent behavioral changes in shipping. (Blue Visby, 2026)

Measured costs and benefits

The consortium reported the following reductions for the prototype trials with Gerdt Oldendorff and Begonia. Measured against the vessels' service speeds of 14 knots:

• Gerdt Oldendorff achieved a CO₂ reduction of 28.2% (7.9% against its intended voyage speed of 12 knots).
• Begonia achieved a 12.9% reduction.
• The trials averaged 17.3% lower CO₂ emissions across the two voyages. (Smart Maritime Network, 2024)

These reductions came purely from optimized speed and arrival management, with no new fuels or engines. A hindcast analysis by the consortium of 20,580 voyages by 3,651 Panamax vessels in 2022 showed median potential CO₂ savings of 23.2%. (Blue Visby, 2024a)

Fuel savings for the CBH voyages were not published in absolute tonnes.

The trials also served as a technical proof of concept. Blue Visby reported that the software, operational system and benefit-sharing mechanism were all deployed and tested, and that the solution requires no capital expenditure. Class societies have independently reviewed the methodology: ClassNK granted the solution an Innovation Endorsement in November 2023, and in May 2025 Bureau Veritas validated the emissions methodology, AIS-based voyage analysis and digital-twin simulations behind the solution. (Ship and Bunker, 2023; Bureau Veritas, 2025)

Broader implications

--A second series of trials in 2024, on 40 voyages by 16 LPG tankers under charter by Marubeni, reported projected fuel and GHG savings of about 29% on average (Blue Visby, 2024b). This is a projection based on recommendations, not a measured saving across all 40 voyages.