The launch ceremony of DEME’s 3,500m3 LNG-powered trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) MINERVA took place on 3 December at Royal IHC's shipyard in Kinderdijk, The Netherlands. The official name giving and christening ceremony will take place in the spring of 2017 in Zeebrugge, Belgium, the company said in its press release.
"The launch of this vessel is an important milestone for the dredging industry,” says IHC's Executive Director Shipbuilding, Arjan Klijnsoon.
“IHC had already started to investigate the integration of LNG into dredging vessels in 2012, enabling us to understand the challenges of this green solution. This gave us a solid basis to work from when DEME started its tender process, and helped us to materialise DEME’s preliminary design for two LNG-powered TSHDs. We are proud to have made a huge step forward in dredger design and to be able to limit the environmental impact of DEME’s vessels. We want to thank DEME for their close cooperation and for giving us the opportunity to build the world’s first LNG-powered hopper dredger.”
Alain Bernard, Director and CEO DEME Group: “ The design of our new vessels is inspired by a drive to continuously innovate from an ecological and efficiency perspective. As such, DEME continues to be at the forefront of the industry and significantly reduces the environmental impact of its operations.”
The dual-fuel (diesel and LNG) dredger has a ‘Green Passport’ and a ‘Clean Design’ notation, complying and exceeding with the strictest international emission requirements.
The availability of the vessel has also been increased since it meets the requirements for the extended dry-docking system. Ships under this special programme get a maximum dry-dock interval of 7.5 years (instead of 5 years) by replacing certain dry-dockings with in-water surveys.