From six entries, the jury of the Maritime Award: KNVTS Ship of the Year has selected three nominees, one of which is Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (TSHD) Scheldt River.
The 7950 m3 TSHD Scheldt River was designed and built in the Netherlands at Royal IHC and delivered to the Belgian marine contractor DEME on 25 September 2017.
TSHDs on LNG
The Scheldt River and the smaller Minerva, also built by Royal IHC for DEME at the same time, are the first dual-fuel TSHDs in the world that can operate on LNG. With these vessels, DEME has made a clear choice for LNG as the primary low emission fuel in order to meet the strictest regulations in the field of exhaust emissions in the coming years.
Hybrid Pump Drive and Innovative LNG Engine Management
A disadvantage of LNG as a fuel for powering dredgers, is that dual-fuel engines running on LNG cannot really handle the high variations in engine load resulting from the dredging process. This problem was tackled on the Scheldt River in a very clever way by two innovations: a hybrid pump drive in combination with improved Wärtsilä engine management.
This implies:
- The sand pump is driven in a hybrid way, diesel-direct and diesel-electric simultaneously, by both main engines. In this way, load variations are divided over the two engines, thereby keeping within the dual-fuel engine’s critical limits.
- Dual-fuel engines supplier Wärtsilä has succeeded in making their innovative LNG engine management more suitable for dredge power variations.
- In addition, in extreme cases, the engines can quickly be switched to MDO operation.
- Additionally, the two variable pitch propellers are driven via a two speed IHC patented switchable gearbox, which ensures that both engines and propellers operate at optimum load.
High Degree of Automation
The Scheldt River is equipped with a further improved IHC one-man bridge, in which both sailing and dredging functions are combined. This implies a high degree of automation:
- The improved IHC DP-DT System ensures very precise positioning and track keeping.
- For the automation of the dredging process, the recently developed IHC ECO automation is applied, consisting of “Trailspeed Control”, “Automatic Visor Control” and “Eco Pump Control”. These work together under an artificial intelligence umbrella. This results into high dredged productions with as little overflow losses as possible and, thus, as little pollutive turbidity of the surface water as possible.
Among others, further efficiency is achieved by:
- CFD twin-gondola stern, including a stern thruster, that has been optimised further;
- Wing-shaped innovative bow thruster openings;
- Extension of the time between dry-docking periods from 5 to 7.5 years, together with an in-water survey notation; and
- Innovative bottom door seals that can be exchanged in the water.
Watch two videos of the Scheldt River below (by DEME and Royal IHC).
One of the other nominees, the RSD 2513 Innovation was featured on our website yesterday. The third, the RPA 8 will be presented here tomorrow.
The 21st edition of the Maritime Award: KNVTS Ship of the Year will be presented to the winner at the Maritime Awards Gala on 12 November.
Picture by Royal IHC.
