LNG-fueled cruise ferry delivered by STX Turku shipyard

JANUARY 10, 2013— STX Finland Oy’s Turku shipyard has delivered the 2,800-passenger dual fuel cruise ferry Viking Grace to Viking Line ABP.

The 57,000-gt M/S Viking Grace will enter service between Turku, Finland) to Åland Islands – Stockholm, Sweden, on January 15.  The cruise ferry, which has 1,080 cabins, is 214m x 3.8m, with a capacity of 1,275m, with car decks. 

The use of Wärtsilä’s duel-fuel engine technology will enable this ferry to sail without restrictions in Sulfur Emission Control Areas (SECAs) and Nitrogen Emission Control Areas (NECAs).

M/S Viking Grace is the most environmentally friendly large cruise vessel ever built, using Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as fuel. Wärtsilä supplied four Wärtsilä 8L50DF main engines for the vessel, as well as the transverse bow and stern tunnel thrusters, and two stainless steel fixed pitch, built-up main propellers with complete propeller shaft lines and environmentally sound shaft line seal systems. The propellers are designed with the lowest possible pressure impulses for superb vibration control.
 
The use of LNG as fuel will nearly eliminate all sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions and reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions to at least 80 per cent below the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) current stipulated level. Addiitonally, particulate matter (PM) will be cut by more than 90 percent compared to the emissions from conventional diesel engines, with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduced by 20-30 percent.

One notable system on the Viking Grace is a complete energy monitoring tool called EMMA Advisory Suite supplied by ABB Oy Marine. EMMA contains all the tools relevant for onboard monitoring as well as options for optimization and fleet level follow-up.
The automatic onboard monitoring tool EMMA Onboard Tracker clearly visualizes the overall status of the vessel’s energy efficiency. The vessel’s performance is divided into four KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): cost of operation, energy production/consumption, navigational aspect and finally the optimization level. EMMA uses state of the art machine-learning algorithms to adjust KPI target values dynamically according to operational conditions such as speed and weather. This gives the crew realistic goals and the possibility of improving their operations.

Building of the environmentally friendly M/S Viking Grace started at the STX Turku shipyard in September 2011 and the ship was floated out in August 2012. The ship provided some 2,600 man-years of labor to the shipyard.  

“We are proud to be able to deliver a superb, technically advanced cruise ferry to a Finnish shipping company. We are certain that the ship will be a great success on the route between Turku and Stockholm. The building process of this vessel has provided us with valuable know-how on putting the developing technology for gas-fuelled ships into practice,” says Jari Anttila, EVP and COO of STX Finland Oy, and Director of STX Turku Shipyard.