"Clean" Inland Cargo Ship Powered by Volvo Penta

The Mercurius Shipping Group, located in , launched a new concept for an inland waterway vessel, called the “M-factor”. The vessel is powered by Volvo Penta marine diesel engines both for propulsion and bowthruster.

The ship measures 279 x 31.4 ft.,and has a load capacity of 1500 tons, which is in fact a “small” ship nowadays but with an exceptional big cargo hold. Due to the size of the ship and the limited heights, it can sail in almost all European inland waterways. Since it is developed mainly to go to the smaller channels and rivers they will use the Volvo Penta D16-750 hp as propulsion engine, which is quite unique for this size of ship which normally would be equipped with at least 1.000 hp. The yard has been searching for the most fuel efficient engine at part load. In this application of cyclic operation this is valid for at least 80-90% of the running time. The Volvo Penta D16 is especially on part load outperforming the competition in this range of power and therefore selected as main propulsion engine. To make the ship even more clean in emissions, the engine will be equipped with the STT Emtec SCR and POC system as a standard even though it is still not required by legislations. By this SCR system the NOx is even further reduced by 70 to 90% and the POC filter reduces the PM with another 40%. The prototype will be built at the own yard of Mercurius Shipping in Begej and will be ready in May 2011. The plans are to build at least 4-6 ships yearly, depending on the success of this model. The contract for the second ship has already been given to the Volvo Penta Center Terlouw in . They will deliver the main propulsion engine D16-750, Twin Disk gearbox TD-5170 and SCR system as a complete package towards the Mercurius Shipping Group. Besides the Volvo Penta D16, a Volvo Penta D12-400 will be installed as a thruster engine. The thruster will be delivered as a complete package including engine from the local OEM Verhaar thruster systems.

Brief facts

Shipyard:          Mercurius Shipping Group

Vessel:             Cargo vessel for inland waterways

Length:             85M

Beam:              9.60M

Draft:               2.80M

Displacement:   1500T (2.050M³)

Engines:            Volvo Penta D16MH-750HP @ 1900rpm.

Reverse Gear:   TD-5170

Thruster:           Volvo Penta D12MH-400 HP @ 1800rpm