Scrubber barge will clean up emissions from ships in California ports

Written by Nick Blenkey
Scrubber barge

METS- 3 scrubber barge will treat emissions from ships berthe in California ports/

A self-propelled, scrubber barge vessel being built to to capture and treat exhaust stack emissions vessels in the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles is to have a Schottel propulsion system. The 26 meter long and 13 meter wide barge is to be built by the Greenbrier Marine shipyard in Portland, Oregon, for Clean Air Engineering – Maritime, Inc. (CAE-M), which develops and operates systems that remove diesel emissions from the auxiliary engines and boilers of ocean-going vessels while at berth or anchor.

The barge is a component of the METS-3 marine exhaust treatment system designed by Fassmer Technical Projects and CAE-M has plans to build additional units for operation at further California ports.

“It is more important than ever to develop innovative technologies that help reduce emissions in ports to an absolute minimum,” said CAE-M president Nicholas Tonsich. “Clean Air Engineering – Maritime’s latest METS-3 will succeed in doing exactly that. We are excited to have Schottel as an experienced partner at our side and that they are part of this flagship project.”

“A number of factors had to be taken into account in the design of this next-generation CAE-M METS-3, which is why we were looking for a reliable partner to cooperate with.” said Tim Klaybor, managing director at Fassmer USA. “Schottel and Fassmer share a long-standing relationship. We have made positive experiences, with both reliable products and competent service.”

FOUR RUDDERPROPELLERS, ONE MASTERSTICK

The main propulsion system of the scrubber barge consists of two electrically-driven Schottel RudderPropellers type SRP 150 (400 kW each) featuring propeller diameters of 1.2 meters. The SRPs will run on biodegradable oils (EALs). The scope of delivery includes the complete electrical package, which comprises electric motors, frequency drives as well as a portable control station for the Schottel MasterStick.

Scrubber barge will be joystick controlled
Scubber barge movements will be controlled by Schottel Masterstick

The Schottel MasterStick is a joystick system that can control up to six propulsion units simultaneously. The thrust and the alignment of the propulsion units are controlled and distributed by a software in such a way that all translational and rotational movements required for manoeuvring the barge are executed optimally.

The vessel’s movement can thus be controlled intuitively and comfortably in any desired directions of motion or in a combination of motiond=d.

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