Sweden’s ship design and management player Wallenius Marine and Danish naval architect company Knud E. Hansen have presented a brand-new design concept for a roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessel featuring multiple sustainability-oriented features.
The concept, unveiled at a maritime event in Sweden on September 3, builds on the partners’ Sleipner pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) design as well as on the operational data from the two Sleipner units, Way Forward and Future Way. The two ships, the latter of which was christened in September 2024, will operate under charter for Volkswagen Group Logistics.
This content is available after accepting the cookies.
According to Wallenius Marine, the new RoRo design, featuring an engine room in the bow, will have a cargo capacity of 2,720 lane meters, equivalent to 181 trailers. The ship is envisaged to possess a length of 170 metres.
As disclosed, the Sleipner RoRo concept enables loading and unloading to be carried out “quickly and efficiently” with the stern ramp and main deck spanning the full width of the ship.
More importantly, in terms of the envisioned unit’s environmental performance, propulsion is to be provided by a dual-fuel electric powertrain , capable of running on fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied biogas (LBG), marine gasoil (MGO) and/or biodiesel, and Azipods, a gearless 360° steerable propulsion system.
What is more, the design has reportedly been ‘future-proofed’ to accommodate the possibility of equipping the vessel with wing sails , enabling shore power connection , and alternative energy sources, such as batteries and fuel cells, which are anticipated to further minimize energy consumption and slash emissions.
“The RoRo segment of short-sea shipping plays a key role in the transition to more sustainable transport, not least through the transfer of goods from land to sea transport. At the same time, the industry is facing a generational change where new tonnage is needed to meet both capacity needs and demands for increased energy efficiency and reduced emissions,” Urban Lishajko , Head of Ship Design at Wallenius Marine, highlighted.
“With our combined experience and knowledge from the operation, newbuilding and design of various RoRo ship concepts, we can take advantage of solutions that have worked well for other ships and develop something new,” he added.
Wallenius Marine has been increasingly focused on ship concepts that combine sustainability and functionality.
In addition to the two Sleipner car carriers, the company was, for instance, behind the design of what was hailed as the ‘first’ LNG-powered dual-fuel battery hybrid PCTC vessels, developed for Norway-based RoRo transportation provider United European Car Carriers (UECC).
Wallenius Marine was also in charge of the overall design of Wallenius SOL’s units built and named in 2022, the Baltic Enabler and Botnia Enabler , considered the ‘world’s biggest’ ice-class ConRo units, which are a hybrid between a container vessel and a RoRo ship, with the possibility of running on multiple fuels.