ICELANDIC SISTERS FOR GREENLAND TRADE

The 2,150TEU-capacity Bruarfoss was handed over in October, following July’s delivery of the Dettifoss, from Chinese shipbuilding contractor Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard.

Although registered in the Faroe Islands, the sisters are the largest container-carrying vessels in the history of the Icelandic-owned fleet. In conjunction with RAL’s Tukuma Arctica, built to the same, Deltamarin-developed design, the 179-metre Eimskip pair has brought new scale to the Greenland traffic, providing a year-round weekly service to the capital Nuuk, on the southwest coast, from southern Scandinavia, the Faroes, and Iceland.

The key engineering elements of the latest class, in conjunction with the step change in size, achieve a major advance in environmental standard as measured by emissions per cargo unit and transportation distance. The 1A ice class design meets Polar Code criteria and is moulded to the exacting performance requirements for voyaging and schedule-keeping in north east Atlantic conditions.

Lasing bridges afford extra security to the deck-stowed boxes and enhance turnaround efficiency in port, and the overall cargo containment arrangements promote flexibility in container size and type with a competitive homogeneous load factor (HLF).

The single, seven-cylinder G60ME-C9.5 main engine was manufactured in China under licence from MAN Energy Solutions by CSSC-MES Diesel (CMD) and provides direct drive to a Wartsila controllable pitch propeller for a speed of 18 knots.

The 600mm-bore two-stroke has been specified at a maximum continuous rating (MCR) of 17,000kW for a crankshaft speed of 97rpm, and normal continuous rating of 13,400kW at 89rpm, including power take-off (PTO) for electricity production at sea. The engine incorporates exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology using the bypass-matching concept to achieve Tier III NOx compatibility, and the built-in scrubber system minimises SOx emissions.

The four gensets employ Hyundai HiMSEN L21/31 four-stroke diesels running at a maximum 900rpm, three of the units being nine-cylinder engines of 1,980kW and one being a six-cylinder model of 1,320kW.

The scrubber system embraces treatment of the exhaust streams from the auxiliary plant as well as the main engine. The exhaust gas scrubber and EGR water treatment systems were supplied by the Finnish firm Langh Tech. The process water used in the exhaust gas washing is continuously cleaned during the EGR operation, and fed back after purification to the process circulation or sent overboard. Similar water treatment is employed for the process water of the SOx scrubber system, such that Langh Tech, applying its membrane filtration solution, claims to be the first company to combine treatment technology for both SOx and EGR process water.

The combination saves onboard space and requires only one chemical compound, caustic soda (NaOH), to combat both NOx and SOx emissions.

In the interests of unassisted berthing, especially so when tiers of deck-stowed boxes increase windage, each vessel has an outfit of two Brunvoll tunnel thrusters aft and one forward.

The Covid-19 pandemic and certain other issues delayed the construction programme in China, the knock-on effect being the later than planned start to the Eimskip/RAL cooperation in the summer. The trio from Guangzhou Wenchong has been allocated to what is known as the Red Line, linking Nuuk (Greenland), Reykjavik (Iceland), Reydarfjordur (Iceland), Torshavn (Faroe Islands), Aarhus (Denmark), Aalborg (Denmark), and Helsingborg (Sweden).

The partnership, which takes the form of a space sharing agreement, also allows RAL to access Eimskip’s route network connecting northern Europe with North America.

PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS – Dettifoss/Bruarfoss