Last week, Kooiman Marine Group delivered the first of the two water injection dredgers (WIDs) to Van Oord. The finishing work was completed well before the contractual delivery date, meaning that the vessel named Rijn could leave the yard in Zwijndrecht last Sunday.
Sister ship the Rhône will also be delivered soon. With the delivery of these two water injection vessels, Van Oord is strengthening its global market leadership position in water injection dredging.
Both WIDs were built at Vahali Shipyards in Serbia and completed at the Kooiman Marine Group yard in Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands. The Rijn and Rhône were ordered in July 2022 and are sister vessels of Van Oord‘s Maas and Mersey, which were also built by Kooiman and delivered in 2021. The new vessels will have the same specifications, supplemented by optimisations.
The vessels’ length overall (including the injection pipe) is 43.07 metres, with a breadth of 12.40 metres (also including the injection pipe. Maximum dredging depth is 24 metres.
Also read: Van Oord orders another two water injection dredgers with Kooiman
Hybrid energy management
Energy management in this series of vessels was given special attention during the design phase. The water injection vessels will be equipped with a hybrid energy management system and will be able to store energy in batteries that can be used later for propulsion and other purposes.
Diesel-electric engines will reduce carbon emissions. The new water injection vessels will comply with IMO Tier III legislation for reducing harmful NOx emissions and take account of EU Stage V legislation.
Also read: VIDEO: Van Oord’s new water injection dredger Rhône hits the water
Water injection dredging
Water injection dredging removes sediment “the natural way” by utilising high-pressure water jets to dislodge and transport accumulated sediment. It is an efficient and environmentally friendly way of maintaining the depth of navigation channels, ports and rivers.
Picture by Kooiman Marine Group.
Also read: Van Oord names two new hybrid water injection vessels
