Designing Towards Sustainable Small and Medium Sized Dredgers
Type:
Presented during:
CEDA Dredging Days 2021
Authors:
R. Sens
Abstract
As is well-known, dredging is a power hungry business. Not only is the amount of power installed in a dredger very high, but this power is also almost constant in use. This fact creates a threshold in the ability to adopt current low or zero-emission drive trains on a large scale. This is the case for the entire range of dredgers, but especially for small and medium sized dredgers. The main reasons for this are available space on board, availability of suitable components and cost.
On the other hand dredging is, and will stay, a vital part of a sustainable future. It will have a part in reaching the UN’s Strategic Development Goals. For instance by keeping shipping lanes open or improving them (transport over water is much more efficient then by road which helps with creating sustainable cities, economic growth and industrialization), improving water quality (clean water and sanitation), placing wind power on sea and maintain hydro power dams (affordable and clean energy) etc.
We aim to develop our dredgers as innovative as possible so they can not only perform these jobs all over the world, but are also becoming more and more sustainable themselves.
Damen builds small and medium sized CSD series on stock. How do we design these to be ready for the future? Keeping in mind that one of the biggest advantages of building standard dredgers is minimizing the risk during the build and operation (it is a proven design) and that the development costs per unit are very low. This means that making large design changes every couple of years is not a viable solution.
Within our design philosophy we see this as a process that can be broken up in several steps and that we must look at the broad scope. Some of the steps will quickly become our standard, and some steps are still customer- or project specific. But we don’t just look at the engine part of the dredger. There are many more facets in making a CSD more sustainable. We will take a more in-depth look at:
- Be flexible
- Be durable and maintainable
- Be efficient
- Be proactive
- Be adaptable
- Be recyclable
In the presentation I will show several steps that we already have taken and will take in the future. To illustrate this we will look more in-depth at specific projects like an Electric CSD650 that have already been delivered. This unit is flexible in the way it can be powered. Either by a connection to the power grid or by generator sets placed on land. By using generators we provide an option to power the dredge that is still very much needed. Not many power grids are at the moment ready for this functionality. Currently this will be a diesel set, but in the future a hydrogen powered set is likely feasible.
The Electric ECSD650 is an electrified version of a standard diesel driven dredger. Adapting a standard design has the advantage of a quick delivery time, proven concept and cost. Of course, there are challenges during such a project.
Available space, cooling and classifications rules required additional attention.And we will look at how we implement technology on small and medium sized dredgers that was previously only available for large dredgers. Some examples of this are the non-radioactive density meter, digital connected vessels and HMI (human machine interface) systems that pro-actively support the dredge master. By making better use of the (limited amount) of sensors on board of a small CSD and combining this with big data we can deliver crucial operating data to the operator.
Keywords: UN’s Strategic Development Goals, Zero-emission, Standard Design, Stock Build.