By
Rebecca Gibson |
Wärtsilä is to retrofit engines onboard Ostfriesland, a car and passenger ferry owned by Aktien-Gesellschaft (AG) EMS, so the vessel can use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as its primary fuel.
As part of the contract awarded by German shipyard Brenn - und Verformungstechnik Bremen (BVT), Wärtsilä will install an LNGPac, two six-cylinder 20DF dual-fuel generating sets onboard the vessel. The LNGPac comprises onboard LNG bunkering, storage tanks, and handling equipment with related safety and automation systems.
Wärtsilä is to supply its patented cold-recovery system, which uses the latent heat of LNG in air-conditioning systems, to reduce the amount of electricity consumed in ferry’s cooling compressors. The system will enable AG EMS to reduce its operating costs and increase the ship’s efficiency.
Retrofitting the vessel’s engines will also lessen its environmental impact, so it can continue operating between Emden and Borkum Island in the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park, an ecologically sensitive UNESCO area.
“It is of the utmost importance for us to operate Ostfriesland in the most ecologically friendly manner possible, with low exhaust emissions, perfect manoeuvrability and high reliability,” said AG EMS board member Bernhard Brons. “Thanks to Wärtsilä’s dual-fuel technology and built-in redundancy, the vessel will be able to operate without restrictions in the sulphur and nitrogen emission control areas.”
Work is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2014 and to be completed over a seven-week period.