The German Government has contracted Wärtsilä to supply the engines for a new LNG fuelled research vessel. The 75 m long ship, the Atair, will replace its thirty year old namesake, and will be the first German research vessel operating on LNG fuel.
The vessel is under construction at the Fassmer shipyard in Germany and will be owned by Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH), the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. The vessel is to enter service early 2020.
Engines, SCR and LNGPac
In addition to the engines, Wärtsilä will also supply exhaust cleaning systems based on selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology and the LNGPac system for complete fuel gas handling. The SCR technology will be needed when the engines are running on conventional marine diesel fuel if the vessel exhausts its supply of LNG on long voyages.
The full scope of supply is two 6-cylinder Wärtsilä 20DF dual-fuel engines capable of running on either LNG or conventional liquid fuels, one 6-cylinder 20 engine, two exhaust cleaning systems, and an LNGPac fuel storage, supply, and control system.
Tier III and Silent R
The engines will have Tier III classification since the dual-fuel engines comply with this classification when running in gas mode, and all the engines will be compliant when operating on diesel because of the SCR systems.
Furthermore, the engines will be double elastically mounted to minimise the noise. This special technique will enable the ship to fulfil the DNVGL classification society's "Silent R" rating, thus allowing the sonar equipment to be used without disturbance from underwater radiated engine noise. Wärtsilä has already supplied double elastically mounted main engines equipped with SCR's for the Sonne, a deep sea research vessel also owned by the German government.
Picture: Rendering of the Atair; the first vessel in the BSH fleet with LNG technology.
