Finnish technology group Wärtsilä has won a contract to supply all the main equipment for the first LNG-fueled shortsea roll-on/lift/off (RoLo) vessels to be operated by Bore Ltd., part of Spliethoff Group.
As informed, three ice-class 7,000 dwt ships have been ordered and are being built at the WuHu Shipyard in China.
The 120-meter-long ships will be chartered to Finnish forestry company UPM and will operate in the Baltic and North Seas. The first vessel is scheduled for delivery in mid-2021.
The newbuilds will be equipped with a 250 cbm LNGPac storage and supply system. In addition, the ships will be propelled by a Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engine driving a controlled pitch propeller (CPP) at variable speed. What is more, the vessels will each be equipped with technologies to enable accurately synchronized engine speed and propeller pitch.
According to Wärtsilä, this delivers engine and propulsion efficiency, while the Eco Control operating mode can be selected for automated fuel savings while in transit. These integrated technologies will be supported via Wärtsilä’s Data Collection Unit (WDCU) with cloud based services and remote monitoring to optimize operability, fuel economy, and periodic maintenance.
“Our remote smart services provide … support for the ships’ integrated solution, which is another value-adding feature that we are providing for these vessels. Furthermore, the propulsion efficiency will be optimised using Wärtsilä’s computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Opti Design to tailor the size of the aft appendages specifically to the hull design,” Luuk Hijlkema, Account Manager, Sales, Wärtsilä Marine, explained.
“This efficiency saves fuel and, therefore, also operating costs,” Hijlkema added.