Sustainable dredging test a success

The sustainable energy test took place at the Haringvliet estuary in The Netherlands with one of the latest generation of standard cutter suction dredgers, the IHC Beaver 40. The hydrogen energy was supplied by the Purity fuel cell generator that has been developed by Bredenoord.

Connecting a fuel cell to a dredger had not been tested previously and it needed to operate under the difficult conditions that are typical of the dredging process, i.e. vibrations, dust, water, frost and wave motion. The fuel cell successfully powered the dredger for approximately 120 hours.

IHC Merwede manager of projects & development Marcel Boor says, “The pilot test demonstrates that alternative energy sources can be applied to power dredgers.”

One of IHC Merwede’s main aims is to construct sustainable vessels. The new IHC Beaver 40 for example has been fitted with LED lighting and the use of high-grade materials means that these ships require less maintenance.

“Worldwide dredging projects need to meet increasingly stringent environmental demands,” says Dingeman van Woerden, head of product development at IHC Merwede. “Our customers ask us to come up with solutions on a wide range of dredging tasks and this successful test is another step closer to sustainable dredging.”