Sonihull, the world’s leading ultrasonic anti-fouling system, has been installed aboard the world’s greenest refuelling barge by Dutch distributor Lamers System Care
Built by Kooiman Marine Group and Launched earlier this year, TitanLNG’s FlexFueler 001 is the world’s first inland LNG bunker vessel. It is the first in a series of innovative floating fuel stations that supply Liquid Natural Gas to inland and sea-going vessels that use the fuel instead of heavy fuel oil or diesel.
LNG is a much cleaner fuel than diesel, resulting in 95% fewer emissions of particulate matter and 80% fewer emissions of nitrogen oxides. It also has 15-25% less CO2 emissions. It is therefore a more environmentally-friendly alternative for commercial vessels. The economics have already worked out well for early adopters. Currently, operators using LNG are burning an ECA and IMO 2020-compliant fuel at the same price of heavy fuel oil.
“For such a high-profile green project, it was important to make the vessel as sustainable as possible,” says Bob Lamers, MD of Lamers System Care. “We supplied and fitted one Sonihull 8 ultrasonic anti-fouling system to protect a total of four box coolers, two on the port side and two on the starboard side.”
“The Sonihull 8 system is preventive, environmentally friendly and requires little or no maintenance. There is no drilling, welding or re-inspection of the sea chests required. And unlike impressed current anti-fouling systems there are no expensive copper anodes to replace and no toxic legacy of metallic ions leaching back into the water.”
The Sonihull 8 system can be controlled with 110-240 Volts AC or 22-30 Volts DC. It has eight independent transducers, alarm notifications and an event log, so that the crew can monitor system performance in real time.
“This is a great example of sustainability meeting sustainability,” says Darren Rowlands, Commercial Director of NRG Marine. “The Dutch marine sector has a rich heritage of technology developments and this series of vessels is no exception.”
“Sonihull can protect all hard surfaces wherever you have unwanted marine bio-fouling. There is no poisonous environmental legacy from leached biocides, metal ions or microplastics from ablative coatings.”
Titan LNG will deploy FlexFueler002, currently under construction and ready by mid-2020, in the Port of Antwerp. The third barge in the series will be announced shortly.
