As the last of the Salish-class ferries was delivered this year, BC Ferries unveiled a major newbuilding programme
BC Ferries has reaped benefits from introducing these four vessels into its fleet. The fourth Salish-class ferry Salish Heron went into service in May this year, in the southern Gulf islands of British Columbia.
The LNG dual-fuelled class has offered advantages for Canadian operator BC Ferries including meeting the operator’s goal of fleet standardisation.
BC Ferries executive director, shipbuilding Ed Hooper tells Passenger Ship Technology, “We have started reducing the number of classes of vessels we have. At one point, we had approximately 20 different types of vessels in the fleet. Our strategy has been to reduce the number of classes and types of ship so we can manage the fleet more easily with common supply chains. It will allow us interoperability to move one ship to another route, which should be seamless for everyone.”
Indeed, he points out Salish-class vessels have been rotated around different routes and “most people have not noticed the difference”.
The Salish-class ferries have dual-fuel diesel and gas engines but mainly run on LNG. They use a small amount of pilot diesel to kickstart the gas combustion.
BC Ferries is benefiting from the cost of LNG, as while the cost of fuel has shot up in many parts of the world, in British Columbia, the LNG price is “still quite reasonable”. Mr Hooper adds it is roughly half the cost of diesel.
The Salish-class ferries feature a unique bunkering system developed by BC Ferries, Lloyd’s Register, shipyard Remontowa which built the ferries, fuel provider FortisBC, and Transport Canada. It allows LNG trucks to go directly on to the ferries to refuel, rather than the more traditional side-by-side bunkering.
Remontowa Shipbuilding director of commerce Michał Jaguszewski tells PST, “BC Ferries did not have the infrastructure to carry out side-by-side bunkering as is normally done for LNG-powered vessels. They wanted to avoid infrastructure costs, so we worked with Lloyd’s Register, Transport Canada and BC Ferries to come up with this solution.”
This work involved gas dispersion analysis and hazard analysis to make sure it was safe.
Mr Hooper comments, “It works well for the Salish class, where we have to bunker the vessels once a week.”
The company has applied the same system to its two Spirit-class vessels, which were recently converted to LNG propulsion in a mid-life upgrade.
Mr Hooper says, “With these vessels, the tempo of refuelling is much higher, and we need to refuelevery day. The lesson we have learned is we need a better system if we go for larger-scale LNG delivery. We would need a bunkering vessel. This is one of our options for our future.”
Remontowa built the LNG tanks for the Salish-class vessels.
Mr Jaguszewski explains, “At the time, we had a company Remontowa LNG Systems and when the first LNG vessels were built, we looked at LNG storage systems. BC Ferries was the second project and we had them assembled and supervised the installation on board.”
A major benefit of these LNG tanks is for this project, the cold box containing the gas treatment system and piping was located on the side of the tank, rather than on the top. This made it easier design-wise, Mr Jaguszewski said, as the LNG compartment did not have to be made longer to accommodate the cold box.
Another benefit was Remontowa and Wärtsilä worked to locate the gas valve units in the cold box. Normally, this is located separately.
Commenting on other aspects of the Salish class, Mr Jaguszewski says, “They were designed according to the ice-class notation, because sometimes there are obstacles or debris in the water where vessels operate.”
Among the achievements of Remontowa in constructing the vessels is that, rather than be moved by a heavy lift-vessel from Gdansk to BC Ferries in Victoria, the vessels made their way under their own steam.
Mr Jaguszewski explains, “All Salish-class vessels are designed for operation in sheltered waters. But each did the voyage from Gdansk to Victoria on its own and as part of our contract. This helped the owner to reduce the cost of the entire project.
“We collaborated with specialised companies that deliver vessels all over the world to provide crew and expertise and they are specialist when it comes to voyage planning – that is the crucial part.
“All of the vessels were delivered successfully which was a big saving for the owner as the cost of a vessel on a heavy-lift ship was around 10 times that compared with sailing on its own.”
Mr Jaguszewski believes this saved US$5-6M.
“This is something we can do in the future. We can adapt to owner’s expectations,” he sums up.
New vessel programme
Looking to the future, BC Ferries has started a project to build new vessels. It intends to replace six of its largest vessels in the next five to 10 years as they are 40 to 50 years old.
Mr Hooper explains, “Our objective is to replace all six vessels with one class of ship and build six identical vessels. For that project, we are going to do some concept designs to define the right fuel choice, and to understand the energy requirements.”
He adds, “We will see if we can reduce the energy needs, as the smaller the energy requirements, the smaller the amount of fuel you need. Next, we will look at what energy sources will be available on the west coast of Canada in 2029 when the new ships go into service.”
He lays out the potential options, “That mix could include batteries, as we have a lot of hydroelectricity here. Renewable natural gas and renewable diesel would also get us to zero-emissions objectives.”
Mr Hooper adds, “We would probably not operate these vessels on LNG, but we might on renewable LNG.”
And thirdly, there is some discussion about whether there might be green methanol.
Over the next few months, BC Ferries will be looking at the availability of fuel sources from different suppliers, the delivery options, the cost, and if the suppliers can provide it for the next 40 years.
As well as LNG-fuelled vessels, BC Ferries also has six new battery-hybrid Island-class vessels in its fleet.
Commenting on the battery use, Mr Hooper says, “We are happy with it so far but restrained on how effectively we can use it, so our plan for the Island class is to bring the electrical supply right down to the berth so we can charge the ship in between sailings, allowing us to only use batteries for power.”
Currently, the electrical supply on shore is not enough, so the batteries must be charged by the engines and can only be used for peak shaving.
Mr Hooper says, “We need to electrify the terminals and we have a project set up to do that work.”
Moving on to e-methanol, he outlines the advantages, “It is considered a sustainable fuel, has the advantage of being green and there are some indications it might be less expensive than renewable diesel on a per energy used basis.
“It’s relatively straight forward, since you don’t need a cryogenic fuel storage system. Some of the complexities of renewable LNG are not there and it is an easier fuel to handle than compressed gas.”
He sums up, “Our work over the next few months is to evaluate this space and decide what we want in the future. The most likely answer is a combination of fuel, for example, renewable diesel with a battery system where we can take some energy from shore. That would give us flexibility and a diesel engine we buy now could be configured for methanol later.”
The timeline includes BC Ferries deciding on its plans within the next six months, with the aim to sign a contract with a shipyard at the end of 2024.
Other initiatives BC Ferries is looking at include modifying the engines on the Salish and Spirit-class ferries to reduce methane slip.
“Between the changes to fuel, changes to engines, electrification of the Island-class and bringing in new major vessels, we will be a long way forward to getting to net zero by 2050,” says Mr Hooper.
