Posted on January 28, 2016
To further strengthen its position in the offshore renewable power generation & transportation market, DEME has started the construction of the multipurpose vessel ‘Living Stone’. The vessel is being built by the Spanish shipyard LaNaval near Bilbao where recently the keel laying ceremony took place. The ‘Living Stone’ will be delivered in 2017 making it another DEME vessel equipped with dual fuel engines, in addition to the self-propelled jack-up vessel ‘Apollo’ and 3 other hopper dredgers that have been ordered.
The multipurpose vessel ‘Living Stone’ will be the most advanced in its class. The vessel features DP3 (Dynamic Positioning 3) capability together with an important total loading capacity of 12.500 tons. It will be equipped with two large 5.000 tons cable/umbilical carrousels arranged below deck allowing for a free deck space of ca. 3500 m² which accommodates the modular cable/umbilical handling systems, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), the subsea trenching tool CBT 1100 and the fall-pipe system. A central moon pool of 7,7m by 7,7m and the installation of a 600 ton crane for subsea installation and removal complete this arrangement.
The new vessel will be able to accommodate up to 100 people and will serve transport and installation projects as well as offshore power cable and umbilical installation, interconnectors for the future European super grid amongst others.
Dual fuel
The ‘Living Stone’ has been designed as an environmentally friendly vessel with ‘dual fuel’ main engines with LNG being its prime fuel. In order to operate the vessel with the lowest possible fuel consumption while also keeping CO2 and NOx & SOx exhaust emissions to the strictest minimum, LNG as fuel and biodegradable grease and oil will be used combined with heat recovery.
The ‘Living Stone’ will also have a Green Passport and the Clean Design Notation awarded to owners and operators who choose to design and operate their vessels in an environmentally sustainable manner. The aim is to reduce the vessel’s emissions and waste so that the overall environmental burden from shipping is reduced.
The ‘Living Stone’ will join the fleet of fall-pipe vessels of DEME’s offshore division Tideway which currently includes the ‘Flintstone’, ‘Rollingstone’ and ‘Seahorse’.
