Damen Shipyards Group has supplied a complete components package to Korean yard Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC). The package includes all equipment for oil recovery operations as well as a complete dredging installation.
The multi-purpose vessel will primarily act as an oil recovery vessel, and will undertake work as a hopper dredger when not tending to emergencies. The 5000-tonne, 4100 m3 vessel will be built by HHIC. It will be Korea’s first large combined oil recovery and dredging vessel.
Equipment package
The equipment package comprises the dredging gear, the oil sweeping gear and the electric and hydraulic system. Moreover, the integration of all these systems is undertaken by Damen. The dredging installation is a complete turnkey package including a 900 mm trailing pipe, designed to dredge at max -30 metres depth, complete with its gantries and winches, a dredge pump and jet water pump including drives, plus ample hopper loading and discharging equipment, including dredge valves and overflows.
The oil recovery system consists of a rigid sweeping arm of 15 metres complete with its crane and various oil pumps in order to deal with oils of varying viscosity. The oil recovery system has been designed to work in waves up to 4 metres.
Pollution incident response
The multi-purpose vessel is being built for KOEM, the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation. This Korean Governmental body is tasked with cleaning and protecting the marine environment.
‘With this Multi-purpose oil spill response vessel project, we will be able to build a foundation for strengthening the ability to respond to large-scale marine pollution incidents as well as establish a rapid control system in Korea,’ says a KOEM official. ‘We hope for the successful deployment of this vessel to the target site so that we may continue to protect our oceans effectively.’
Damen has started on the engineering process, working towards ensuring the optimal fit of the dredging gear. The vessel is due to be delivered in 2022.