Valencia, 6 February 2020.- This week, a team of technical experts from the Fundación Valenciaport and Baleària travelled to Ibiza and Barcelona to continue the campaign to measure emissions from Baleària’s ships within the framework of the LNGHIVE2 Green & Smart Links project, co-financed by the European Commission’s CEF Blending programme.
The main objective of the LNGHIVE2 project is the remotorization and adaptation of five ships in Baleària (Abel Matutes, Naples, Sicily, Bahama Mama and Martín i Soler) to be propelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG), a cleaner and more environmentally friendly energy, which goes far beyond the current regulations on pollution. Within the framework of this project, the Fundación Valenciaport is in charge of validating the retrofitting of the ships, analysing its results, in terms of emissions (by measuring the emissions before and after the retrofitting), as well as by carrying out the respective cost-benefit analyses.
Two of these ships have already completed their adaptation and are currently sailing using LNG as fuel: the Naples and the Abel Matutes, the latter being the one on which technicians from the Fundación Valenciaport have measured emissions this week, specifically during the journey it makes between Barcelona and Mallorca. For their part, the technicians from Baleària have measured the power of the engines using a portable torsiometer to be able to cross these data with those obtained in the measurement of the emissions.
On the other hand, the technicians of the Fundación Valenciaport have measured, also this week, the emissions of the ship Sicilia in the route Ibiza-Barcelona, using this one traditional fuel for its propulsion. Once the retrofitting process for this ferry has been completed, which is scheduled to begin on 20 February, the ship’s emissions on the same route will be measured again, this time using LNG as fuel, to verify the effective reduction of the ship’s emissions.
Once the emissions campaigns have been completed, the results will be calibrated and analysed, which will allow the assessment of the environmental performance of the new fuel and its contribution to the improvement of air quality and the reduction of the greenhouse effect.
Baleària – LNG Pioneers
Baleària is a world pioneer in the use of liquefied natural gas. It has been working on projects related to this fuel since 2012 and is a founding member of the Spanish Natural Gas Association for Mobility (GASNAM). LNG is more sustainable, as it eliminates SOx (sulphur oxide) and particle emissions, and reduces NOx (nitrogen oxide) by 85%. It also emits 30% less CO2 (carbon dioxide), one of the main greenhouse gases. The shipping company has at the moment four ferries with dual motors that can go driven by liquefied natural gas, two of them of new construction (the ‘Hypatia of Alexandria’ and the ‘Marie Curie’) and other two remotorized ones (the ‘Naples’ and the ‘Abel Matutes’), They will be joined by four other remotorizations until 2021 (of which five are part of the LNNGHIVE2 Green & Smart Links project, co-financed by the European Commission’s CEF Blending program), as well as the world’s first ‘fast ferry’ powered by dual engines to liquefied natural gas, the ‘Eleanor Roosevelt’, which is expected to come into operation in 2020. Therefore, the current fleet plan provides for a total of 9 LNG smart ships in 2021.
