Damen Shiprepair & Conversion has won a contract to convert a dredger to dual-fuel capability combining LNG and MGO. This will be the first conversion of its kind to take place in Europe.
The contract was awarded by Rouen-based GIE Dragages-Ports with regard to its 117 m, 8500 m³ trailing suction hopper dredger Samuel de Champlain. The works will take place next year at Damen Shiprepair Dunkerque. The conversion is part of an EU-supported initiative to promote LNG propulsion in short-sea vessels operating along the European Atlantic coast.
Conversion Package
Under the contract, Damen is delivering a turnkey package that includes engineering, procurement and support. The current propulsion system of the Samuel de Champlain is diesel-electric burning MGO, and so the package includes the change of generators to dual-fuel models and the installation of onboard LNG storage facilities. The vessel was built in 2002 and is the largest vessel in the GIE Dragages-Ports fleet. Based in the Grand Maritime Port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, she divides her time between the Loire and Seine estuaries.
GIE Dragages-Ports
GIE Dragages-Ports is an economic interest group that owns, maintains and charters out a fleet of seven dredgers to six key ports serving the French Atlantic coast plus Marseille in the Mediterranean. It is 50% owned by the seven ports and 50% by the French State. Each port charters the dredgers from GIE Dragages-Ports according to its needs and is responsible for operating them and supplying its own crew.
INEA Subsidy
The conversion project is being made possible by a subsidy from the European Commission’s Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) via its Connecting Europe Facility programme. To achieve the funding, GIE Dragages-Ports formed a 12-member Franco-Spanish consortium named the “S/F SamueLNG for a Blue Atlantic Arch” project with the aim of promoting the use of LNG by small-scale vessels active on the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France and up into the English Channel / La Manche.
The conversion of the Samuel de Champlain will demonstrate the feasibility of using LNG as a fuel on smaller vessels, and allow GIE Dragages-Ports to fulfil its mission of optimising costs via lower fuel bills and less engine maintenance, while at the same time delivering greatly reduced emissions of CO2.
Currently a series of studies are underway, and equipment is being ordered. The conversion itself is scheduled for the autumn of 2018.
