Powerful TSHD can handle tough conditions

TSHD Bonny River, built at Royal IHC’s Chinese partner yard COSCO Guangdong Shipyard for Belgian dredging company DEME, is driven by Schottel’s controllable pitch propellers and transverse thrusters. With a 15,000 cbm capacity, the vessel is capable of dredging hard soil and able to work in water depths of more than 100m.

Jan Gabriel, head of the technical construction and conversion department at the DEME Group, commented: “The design of the ‘Bonny River’ is inspired by a drive to continuously innovate from an ecological and efficiency perspective. As such, DEME continues to be at the forefront of the industry and significantly reduces the environmental impact of its operations. SCHOTTEL’s propulsion solutions fit in this strategy.”

8,000kW input power

Bonny River features two SCHOTTEL Controllable Pitch Propellers type SCP 129 4-XG with an input power of 8,000kW each and a propeller diameter of 4.5m. It reaches a speed of approximately 16 knots. Beyond this, maximum manoeuvrability and propulsion efficiency are provided by tunnel thrusters – two STT 3 FP (750kW each) and one STT 5 FP (1,500kW) – which can be demounted from above.

Together with SCHOTTEL’s control partner NORIS and IHC Systems, a complete power management system was developed. This controls the mechanically driven dredging pump, PTOs and the propellers without overloading the dual-fuel engines.

Suitable for coastal protection assignments, Bonny River is currently being mobilised in Flushing (Vlissingen), Netherlands, for its first assignments.

By Rebecca Jeffrey