Project OptiMar, a groundbreaking initiative led by PurpleSector in collaboration with Serco, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and Harwich Haven Authority (HHA), has received a significant UK Government grant through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC6).
CMDC6 is part of a suite of interventions launched by the UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (UK SHORE), a programme tasked with outlining the UK Government’s commitment to decarbonising the UK maritime sector, while also guaranteeing its future sustainability.
As the UK works towards its Net Zero by 2050 target, ‘Project OptiMar’ stands as a testament to British innovation, poised to deliver practical, cutting-edge digital solutions for the marine sector that simultaneously benefit the economy, environment and public health.
Project OptiMar (OPTImised MARitime) will deliver a first-of-its-kind digital twin platform to help optimise both the operational activity of a fleet of vessels and the design and performance of their propulsion systems.
This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) digital twin platform, powered by machine learning (ML), will:
- Manage the complexity of real-time variables in vessel scheduling which can generate millions of permutations.
- Support human decision-makers by providing optimised schedules that include all operational constraints and are fully compliant with regulations.
- Deliver detailed, vessel-specific assessments and recommendations for deploying low and zero emission propulsion systems, feeding these back into the activity assessments for continuous optimisation.
As practical as it is pioneering, the digital twin will integrate with existing technology investments and publicly accessible data streams to accelerate reductions in both emissions and costs for a significant sector of the UK marine industry.
As Marine operators grapple with how to reduce emissions and costs without compromising operational effectiveness. ‘OptiMar’ will provide a solution to these challenges for the approximately 1,000 UK workboats and 400 rescue vessels active in the UK.
The digital twin software sets out to deliver an average 30% CO2 and cost saving per vessel per year:
- For a typical UK operator, this could mean an annual saving of 1,068 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) and £665,000 in fuel costs.
- When scaled across the 7 major UK port groups and 139 operators of similar vessels this translates to an annual saving of 14.8 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent (ktCO2e pa) and £8.5 million in operational expenditure.
Beyond CO2 reductions ‘OptiMar’ aims to reduce local air pollutants such as NOx and particulates by 10-30%.
‘OptiMar’ will strengthen the competitive position of UK ports and operators, safeguard existing jobs and create new ones whilst anchoring intellectual property in the UK.
Aiming to accelerate the UK’s commitment to Net Zero by 2050 by enabling crucial planning for the adoption of future zero-emission vessels.
Mike Hayes, Transformation and Programmes Director for Defence UK & Europe at Serco: “PurpleSector is solutions-focused in a problem-focused world – they don’t just analyse, they implement. It’s almost mind blowing the speed at which the team can create clarity from ambiguity.”
Reece Oliver, Head of Engineering Transformation at the RNLI: “PurpleSector continues to provide innovative and pragmatic support to our engineering team to help us deliver better value services to our volunteer lifesaving crew. Project ‘Optimar’ is another step in enabling our organisation to make data-led decisions on operational efficiency, fuel consumption and powertrain emissions.”
Led by PurpleSector, a UK SME renowned for transferring Formula 1™ expertise to commercial applications, OptiMar brings together a powerful consortium of proven partners and builds on the validated findings of two previous award-winning marine projects:
- CHAMP2 (Clean Hybrid Alternative Marine Powertrain): This PurpleSector-led project used Formula 1™- derived sensors and data analytics to capture and analyse real-time duty cycle data from Serco and RNLI vessels. It successfully demonstrated that a sustainably-fuelled electric hybrid powertrain, alongside duty cycle optimisations, could deliver significant CO2 and cost savings.
- SEAS (Smart, Efficient, Automated Scheduling): This 2024/25 Innovate UK- funded project, a collaboration between PurpleSector and Harwich Haven Authority, digitised and optimised the scheduling of the port authority’s pilot boats. The project provided insight into how the authority could reduce fuel use and emissions and indicated potential operational expenditure savings of £381,000 per year.
In addition to leveraging insights from this foundational work, Project OptiMar will collect new and ongoing data to build out an integrated digital twin appropriate for a wider range of vessels and operational scenarios.
Mark Mathieson MBE, CEO of PurpleSector: “The best partnerships are forged through shared attitude and ambition. Thank you to Innovate UK for championing our work, and to our partners for their dedication to this important initiative.”
Our operational timeline is set out below during the following dates; 1st September 2025 until 1st April 2026.
Key milestones within the timeline are likely to be:
- Installing data loggers on vessels: early November 2025
- Collecting and analysing data: December 2025–January 2026
- Training of Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) officers and trials: February 2026
The first commercial deployment of OptiMar for project partners is planned for 2027. A wider commercial roll-out to relevant UK operators is projected between 2027 and 2030.
William Barker, Harbour Master at Harwich Haven Authority: “PurpleSector is recognised for its expertise in optimising how vessels are using and developing innovative technologies to reduce carbon emissions. We value the way PurpleSector shares our attitude and ambition.”
Mike Biddle, Executive Director for Net Zero at Innovate UK, said: “Purple Sector’s Project OptiMar shows how UK-based innovations are making a sizeable impact toward maritime decarbonisation. The project looks set to deliver reductions in emissions and fuel costs of certain vessels, and demonstrates precisely how UK SHORE-supported projects are putting the UK at the forefront of developing cutting-edge maritime decarbonisation technology.”
