Sleipnir: the most sustainable heavy lift vessel – Heerema Marine Contractors

Heerema Marine Contractors is one of the leaders in the offshore construction industry, embracing LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) as a marine fuel.  The most recent addition to Heerema’s fleet – the Sleipnir – has numerous features that reduce its impact on the environment and increase sustainability, including the use of LNG as fuel.

Sleipnir is the most sustainable heavy lift vessel in the world.  Compared to a similar vessel using only heavy fuel oil, carbon emissions have been reduced by approximately 20%, while other emissions are reduced by at least 80%-95% and more.  Sleipnir has numerous other features apart from the reduction of emissions due to the usage of LNG.  Some of these are:

• Complete outfitting with LED lighting;
• Heat/cold energy recovery system;
• Variable frequency drives;
• State of the art silicon-based antifouling paint;
• Shore power ready in order to shut down generators in port, scheduled for late 2020.

As sustainability and innovative solutions often go hand in hand in the offshore industry, Heerema has used technology to achieve both outcomes, implementing innovative solutions and operational good practice throughout the fleet to promote responsible consumption, efficient operations and reduction of environmental impact.

These have included:

• Use of underwater bubble curtains to lower the noise level generated by underwater hammers during pile driving in order to protect wildlife;
• Introduction of LED lighting on-board vessels;
• Use of biodegradable oil in areas where there is oil-to-sea contact;
• Waste separation on-board vessels ensures waste can be recycled, incinerated or disposed of responsibly.

Sleipnir is the world’s first offshore construction vessel to implement a dual-fuel system, allowing the vessel to use Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for power generation.

Originally issued with the following reference(s): IMCA ESB 01/20