In the JOULES project, Damen focusses on the Azimuthing Stern Drive (ASD) Tug 2810. As the name suggests the ship has a length of 28 meters and a width of 10 meters. It has a displacement of 565t with a maximum forward speed of 13.4 kts and a bollard pull of 60t. The DAMEN ASD Tug 2810 operates all over the world - from Genoa to St. Petersburg and from Panama to Namibia. The Damen Standard allows the vessel to operate comfortably in temperatures of +45 degrees down to -35 degrees Celsius. More than 170 of these compact and powerful tugs are working in ports worldwide Captains concur that the tugs are known for their quick acceleration and manoeuvrability.

Dredgers, more specifically trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHD) designed to transport large quantities of soil. They are mostly used for maintenance of ports and approaching waterways, land reclamation operations, e.g. for port extension, and shore protection. They also dredge sand for construction of new cities or extension of cities. Therewith they operate near very densely populated areas. Every port in Europe has dredgers operational: in all major ports they operate on a continuous basis. Their operation is highly energy consuming. In short, dredgers are highly powered workhorses and their operation is highly visible to the public. Over the last 30 years, energy efficiency of the TSHD’s has improved dramatically: ships built over the last decade typically consume 30 % less fuel than ships with equal size built in the 1980s. Currently, energy efficiency is under pressure: requirements to the NOX and SOX levels in exhaust gases lead to efficiency reduction of the diesel engines. Technological solutions for exhaust gas cleaning cost significant amounts of energy: up to 5 % of the rated engine power is required to remove SOX from the exhaust gases. State-of-the-art is the 85 m class of ships. This ship size has evolved over the past decades into a highly successful vessel. It is designed either as a HFO, or an MDO vessel. For purpose of the work being done within this project we’ll envisage the MDO version as this is most complicated version.

State of the art is a diesel direct driven installation, operating on heavy fuel oil. Hull form has been optimized for operation in shallow water. These efforts have led to a reduction in fuel consumption of about 30 % over the last 30 year. As result of development in the past, we have dynamic models of most equipment used on current day dredgers. There is lack, however, of electrical models, models of energy grid and controlling algorithms. There is also still a shortage on real life data, enabling us to validate our models. Especially the improved controlling algorithms, combined with a diesel (or gas engine) electric main propulsor has the potential of strongly reducing the energy consumption.