At the 4th Maritime Awards Gala, held in De Doelen in Rotterdam on 28 October 2009, the KVNR Shipping Award 2009 was granted to the sustainable tugboat project known as E3 Tug. The E3 tug is being developed by a consortium consisting of Smit engineering, Damen Shipyards and Alewijnse Marine Systems. Alewijnse is responsible for the ship’s electric propulsion and power supply.
The E3 tug’s design is about energy efficiency and reducing harmful emissions. The E3 stands for Environmentally friendly, Economically viable and Efficient in operation. In order to achieve this, Alewijnse Marine Systems is developing a new propulsion and power system.
Hybrid and Self-Regulating
Moritz Krijgsman, managing director of Alewijnse Marine Technology, comments: ‘The tug must be able to move fast and tug hard, but produce little emission while waiting. This points to a hybrid solution: diesel motors as well as generators, possibly supported by batteries.’ Equally unique are the plans to make the system self-regulating. There is only one other hybrid tugboat available worldwide, in the United States, but it lacks an autonomous regulating system.
Successful Cooperation for a Sustainable Solution
Apart from the three partners Smit, Damen and Alewijnse, the consortium developing the E3 Tug includes Technical University Delft (calculation models), MARIN (measuring of emissions), Imares (determining the emissions’ impact on the surroundings) and Havenbedrijf Rotterdam (Rotterdam Harbour). This cooperation is underpinned by a shared interest, with the partners all speaking the same language and keeping to the agreements made. After the project’s successful completion, the knowledge which is now being gathered may well be made applicable on a worldwide scale.
