Yesterday, Van Oord celebrated the christening ceremonies of two new hybrid water injection dredgers, Rijn and Rhône, and an unmanned survey vessel, VO:X Barentsz. The event took place at the Van Oord head office jetty in Rotterdam, according to the company's release.
The Rijn and Rhône are sister vessels of the Maas and Mersey, which were successfully commissioned in 2021.
The Rijn and Rhône are among the most sustainable water injection dredgers to date and will have the Ultra Low Emission Vessel (ULEV) notation of the classification society. The combination of hybrid energy management systems, heat recovery systems and exhaust gas aftertreatment devices reduce the vessels’ energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter (CO2e, NOx, PM). Innovative technologies such as active heave compensation and a dynamic positioning system enable us to automate much of the dredging process.
VO:X Barentsz, Van Oord’s fifth unmanned autonomous survey vessel (USV) was christened by Ms Lucienne van Leeuwen-Koper. She is the wife of Michel Koper, Director Survey at Van Oord. Van Oord’s in-house survey department and DEMCON Unmanned Systems have jointly developed and successfully operated four USV’s in the past years. After the successful deployment of these vessels, Van Oord contracted DEMCON unmanned systems for a fifth USV specialised for operations at sea, the VO:X Barentsz.
This new larger vessel is also an evolution of the four other USVs, building upon the same hardware and software USV platform system and expanding this vessel with new technologies and more functionalities for offshore operations. Unmanned survey vessels enable Van Oord to obtain more measuring data for its clients at lower costs. In addition, deploying these vessels increases safety by eliminating an onboard operator and surveyor.