Foss unveil their second Hybrid tug
The world’s first hybrid tug Carolyn Dorothy is soon to be joined sister ship, the Campbell Foss.
One of America’s major towage organisations, the Foss Maritime Company, unveiled its second true ‘Hybrid’ tug at an event held on 20 September at the company’s Rainier shipyard in Oregon.
This latest hybrid is the retrofitted Campbell Foss, a sister to the Carolyn Dorothy, which been in service in Los Angeles and Long Beach for almost two years.
Carolyn Dorothy was a brand new vessel built to the same basic design by Robert Allan Ltd as a series of already highly successful ‘Dolphin’ class ASD shiphandling tugs with conventional diesel propulsion systems. Campbell Foss, which was nearing completion at the time of writing, is one of that class.
The conversion to hybrid propulsion was carried out in partnership with the southern California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Head of environmental planning for the Port of Long Beach, Richard Cameron said, "Hybrid technology is already proving itself and we're anxious to see improvements in this second generation vessel." The Foss/Los Angeles-Long Beach partnership's goal is to achieve significant reductions in pollution emissions and improved fuel efficiency while preserving operational capability.
Campbell Foss is a vessel of 23.77m in length overall, powered originally by Caterpillar 3512B HD main engines producing a total of 5,080bhp to drive a pair of Rolls-Royce 205FP fully azimuthing propulsion units. With this propulsion system, the Campbell Foss and its other ‘Dolphin’ class sisters had a maximum bollard pull of 65 tons. The conversion included installing smaller main engines, motor/generators, batteries and a comprehensive power management system. Battery capacity in this later hybrid will be provided by a pack of ten lithium batteries, expected to be a great improvement over the lead acid variety used in the earlier vessel. The lithium batteries aboard Campbell Foss will help power the vessel while it's idling and traveling from job to job without a tow. Over the 20 year life of the tug, fuel costs could be cut in half with a hybrid, along with reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
Foss' vice president of environmental and governmental affairs, Susan Hayman commented, “All the ports are asking for hybrids. The future is probably with retrofitting the old fleet instead of building new hybrid tugs. A full retrofit employs a crew of about a half dozen, and the project has helped Foss retain full employment in Rainier at about thirty. A new hybrid costs about $8m, about $2m to $3m more than a standard diesel tug. Foss has no orders for new boats, but the company expects it will eventually convert its remaining eight Dolphin-class tug boats to hybrids.”
The University of California in Riverside plans to study the emissions of the Campbell Foss to see how efficiently it works. Hayman said she “hopes the data will help Foss improve future tugs. It's a way to make our fleet cleaner.”
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