Last February, five Maritime Engineering bachelor students of the Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands) finished their Minor on Arctic Engineering. In cooperation with Damen Shipyards Group and other partners this project has now resulted, amongst others, in a new Arctic vessel: the Damen AMTSV (Arctic Modular Towing Supply Vessel). The Arctic concept vessel will be running on dual-fuel Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) engines in an effort to make it more environmentally friendly.
The 100 m double acting supply ship is capable of operating in the Barents Sea year round and in the Baffin Bay and Beaufort Sea for 8 months. The AMTSV has the ability to sail through 1.6 metres of level ice at 3 knots and can tow in both directions. Open water speed is 14 knots (approx.).
The integration of educational and commercial interests turned the Minor into a combined project of shipbuilder Damen, risk management and classification company DNV, Dutch hydrodynamics and nautical research institute Marin, the Aalto University in Helsinki (Finland) and the Delft University of Technology. The goal: the design of a new Arctic Offshore Support Vessel by combining the skills of all partners into a complete view on shipbuilding, from design to delivery.
The vessel is equipped with 1 x dual-fuel 7.2 MW, 1 x dual-fuel 4.05 MW and 2 x dual-fuel 2.7 MW engines. With 1,050 M3 of LNG fuel on board, it is capable of operating 15.5 days on LNG.
The main disadvantage of LNG is that it requires a lot of storage capacity. However, ice strengthened vessels have a lot steel weight in the hull compared to open water vessels and this means that the centre of gravity is relatively low. Therefore the disadvantage is negated by placing the LNG tanks on top of the enclosed superstructure.
(Source: Damen)
