“Hypatia de Alexandria”, Balearia LNG-powered ferry, into service between Barcelona and Maiorca

• 06 Feb 2019

Hypatia de Alexandria,Baleària’s first ferry wholly powered by LNG, has recently started sailing regularly between Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca after its arrival  on 27 January at the port of Barcelona, ​​coming from the Visentini shipyard of Porto Viro, near Venice.

The arrival of the ferry was greeted with a ceremony attended by the President of the Port of Barcelona, ​​Mercè Conesa, and the President of Baleària, Adolfo Utor, who stressed that the shipping company has invested 200 million euros for the Hypatia de Alejandria and the sister ship Marie Curie, also under construction at the Italian shipyard.

The two LNG ferries, which have an output of 20,600 KW and are capable of transporting 880 people and 166 vehicles, will be joined in the near future by Eleanor Roosevelt, which will be the world's first LNG fast catamaran currently under construction at the Astilleros Armon shipyard of Gijón (investment of 90 million euros).

Baleària's strategic commitment to LNG began eight years ago, and the company expects to have at least half of its LNG fleet in the next three years and to reach one hundred percent of the fleet within a ten-year period. To this end, the company has received a grant of 12 million euros from the European Union, on a total investment of 72 million euros, to re-power six ships from its existing fleet to LNG.

The new ferry Hypatia de Alejandria, in addition to its high environmental efficiency, is also at the forefront in the use of digital technology in many applications, ranging from customer services to security such as the digitization of all the signage on the ship, the access to the cabins bypassing the reception thanks to a QR code that can be received on the mobile phone and the smartphone control of pet accommodation, while remote monitoring of the entire operation of the ship's propulsion system (on land) is being implemented.