Dual-fuel Solution to Drive World's Mightiest Cutter Dredger

Wärtsilä said it has been contracted to supply a comprehensive package of engines and propulsion machinery for a new cutter suction dredger (CSD) vessel slated to become the world's most powerful and first ever to be fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

 

The newbuild, Spartacus, is being built at the Royal IHC yard in the Netherlands on behalf of Belgium based Dredging International (DEME).

 

The order with Wärtsilä, worth around $21 million, was booked in the fourth quarter of 2016.

 

The 164-meter-long vessel will have a total installed power of 44,180 kW. It will feature four nine-cylinder Wärtsilä 46DF dual-fuel engines, two eight-cylinder Wärtsilä 20DF dual-fuel engines, and a Wärtsilä LNGPac fuel gas storage and supply system with a newly designed bilobe tank arrangement. Wärtsilä will also supply two fixed pitch propellers with shaft assemblies and HP nozzles, and two tunnel thrusters, as well as commissioning, site supervision and extended project management services. The Wärtsilä equipment is scheduled for delivery to the yard during the fourth quarter of 2017.

 

Spartacus is expected to be delivered to the customer in mid-2019 and will operate in different locations around the world. CSDs are able to dredge nearly all kinds of soils, including sand, clay and rock. They are used wherever the ground is too hard for conventional dredgers to operate.

 

DEME is a long-standing customer of Wärtsilä and has, in recent years, utilized Wärtsilä solutions for numerous vessels, including three hopper dredgers, a cable installation vessel, an offshore construction vessel, as well as the Spartacus CSD.