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The Spirit of British Columbia, one of BC Ferries’ two largest vessels, is due to return to service on the Metro Vancouver (Tsawwassen) – Victoria (Swartz Bay) route, following the completion of a mid-life upgrade and conversion to LNG.
The ferry (167 mt and 21,900 gross tonnage, built in 1993) is the first of two vessels to be converted to operate on LNG which is much cleaner for the environment than marine diesel.
Her sister ship the Spirit of Vancouver Island will undergo a similar conversione and mid-life upgrade from fall 2018 to spring 2019.
BC Ferries expects to reduce CO2 emissions by 12,500 tons annually, the equivalent of taking approximately 2500 vehicles off the road per year by using liquid natural gas to fuel the two Spirit Class vessels. Simultaneously fuel costs will be reduced by millions when both ships are in service operating on natural gas.
“The Spirit of British Columbia returns to service with clean technology that reduces both our environmental footprint and cost of operations,” said Mark Collins, BC Ferries’ President and CEO. “The two Spirit Class vessels consume approximately 16% of our fuel annually. The conversion of our two largest ships in the fleet, along with the introduction of our three new natural gas-fuelled Salish Class vessels last year, goes a long way to improving the sustainability of our operations and affordability for ferry users.”
Other upgrades include the renewal of navigation equipment, propulsion equipment components including gearboxes, rudders, steering system, bow thrusters, propeller blades, LED lighting, more efficient air conditioning equipment to reduce energy consumption, and four marine evacuation systems.
“Natural gas is the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel and using LNG in deep-sea ships provides an opportunity to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality on a global scale,” said Roger Dall’Antonia, President and CEO of FortisBC. “In collaboration with BC Ferries, we developed a first-in-the-world proprietary tanker truck technology to deliver fuel while on board the vessel. Innovative solutions like this help make it easier for transportation customers to make the switch to LNG.” FortisBC has been performing approximately a dozen or so onboard marine bunkering per week since December 2016, and will shortly be reaching a milestone of 500 performed.”
British Columbia Ferries owns and operates other three new Salish Class Vessels (to honor the Coast Salish people as the original mariners of the Salish Sea) .that are dual-fuel and capable of operating on either natural gas or ultra-low sulphur marine diesel. The vessels, which accommodates approximately 140 vehicles and up to 600 passengers and measures 107 meters in length overall, were constructed by the Remontowa shipyard in Gdansk, Poland.
The first vessel, the Salish Orca, has started service in May 2017 on the Comox - Powell River route in May. The second Salish Eagle vessel officially commenced service in June 2017 on the Tsawwassen - Gulf Islands route, while the BC Ferries’ third LNG-fueled vessel, the Salish Raven started its service on the same Tsawwassen-Gulf Islands route in August 2017.
Source: LNG World News