MAN L27/38-Powered Hybrid Package adds Flexibility,
Optimisation and Environmental Safety

25 March 2014

View of the Herøyhav’s engine room featuring an MAN 9L27/38 main engine. View of the Herøyhav’s engine room featuring an MAN 9L27/38 main engine. Overview drawing of the Herøyhav (Karstensens Shipyard).   Images by MAN Diesel & Turbo

The Norwegian company, Herøyhav AS, has taken delivery of a 69.95-m trawler/purse seiner from Karstensens Shipyard, Denmark. The vessel is hallmarked by its very flexible propulsion package that offers a number of fuel-saving power modes to accommodate the different fishing patterns it will encounter at sea.

The ‘Herøyhav’ was ordered by the Ervik family of Fosnavåg, Norway in January 2012 and replaces a previous vessel of the same name from 1999. The new fishing vessel has been updated with modern equipment that provides flexible and economic operation, both for pelagic trawling and purse-seine fishing in the Atlantic adjacent to Norway’s coast.

The propulsion package consists of a MAN 9L27/38 engine and a two-speed reduction gear that drives a MAN Alpha 4,200 mm diam. ducted propeller. The propeller nozzle is a customised MAN Alpha AHT design. MAN Diesel & Turbo also supplied its Alphatronic 2000 propulsion control system, including the ECO Speed Pilot for optimal voyage planning and speed setting.

Hybrid flexibility
A hybrid configuration is a fuel-efficient and flexible power-and-propulsion system with high redundancy. Hybrid propulsion systems are a combination of electric propulsion and diesel drive, and enable ships with variable power requirements to run at high propeller efficiency. A large number of operational modes are available, which enable the engine and propeller to run optimally over a wider power range.

The Herøyhav’s propulsion system has several power modes: both diesel-mechanical, diesel-electrical and hybrid combinations. Its auxiliary generators can deliver 1,500 kW auxiliary power to the hybrid system, which – in combination with the main-engine power of 3,285 kW – offer a total propulsion output of 4,785 kW (~ 6,500 hp) for trawling or full-speed steaming.

The following ship speed / power modes were verified during sea trials:

• 11.6 knots – 1,400 kW (diesel-electric, variable propeller speed)
• 14.0 knots – 2,400 kW (diesel-electric, fixed propeller speed)
• 15.5 knots – 3,285 kW (diesel-mechanical)
• 16.6 Knots – 4,785 kW (diesel-mechanical + electric boost)

Environment – no oil to water
As a result of the fuel-saving propulsion setups for the various operational modes, the Herøyhav also limits exhaust gas-to-air emissions. Another, remarkable environmentally friendly feature is its coated propeller shaft, installed in combination with a water-lubricated stern-tube system, that eliminates any risk of sealing damage and any leakages of stern-tube oil to the sea in the event of impact with fishing gear wires.

About Karstensens Shipyard
Karstensens Skibsværft A/S is a modern shipyard with some 250 employees at its newbuilding and repair/service facility in Skagen, Northern Jutland. The yard is capable of building a broad variety of ship types up to a length of circa 135 metres, including fishing vessels, tankers, freighters, ferries, naval offshore patrol vessels, and other special-purpose vessels. The yard has built over 400 vessels since its birth in 1917 with Herøyhav being designated hull number 423.

MAN Diesel & Turbo, Press Release