Feature 1 | SHIPBUILDING TECHNOLOGY, MATERIALS & METHODS
Veikko Hintsanen, MD at Laffcomp Oy shipyard.
The properties of the ALF sandwich. Finland’s new power station, fired up
last year, in Jyväskylä on the shores of Lake Päijänne, will, hopefully at some future date, use woodchip as a sustainable fuel source and LaffComp said, “Ship borne transportation of the fuel, wood chip and timber, would yield massive cost savings when compared to road transportation, with the obvious beneficial impact on the environment of replacing dozens of trucks with one ship.” Model studies with Lappeenranta University have shown that the emissions of this new innovative ship are 66% less compared to trucking of the same cargo. Te savings of energy in transportation is 54%,
the driving
personnel is one eighth of that required for year-round trucking operations.
A woodchip carrier constructed from
aluminium foam would be capable of operating all year in the extremely harsh sub-zero conditions of a Scandinavian winter. “Te BioLaivat can break through 60cm of ice at a speed of 6knots. Te engines have been specifically developed and are capable of producing 4000shp, to deliver that amount of power to propellers when the ship has a maximum draſt of 2.4m requires special significant design attention and in this case resulted in four independent propellers,” LaffComp explained. LaffComp itself was established in
October 2007 and had a rental agreement at the former Kotka Shipyard at Hietanen Port. That agreement was terminated as delays to the project meant that there
were no newbuilding contracts. However, LaffComp and its co-operation partners are now in negotiations with a number of yard partners, one is thought to be Savonlinna shipyard for Saimaa max multipurpose vessel construction. On the LaffComp website only the Bioship
design is listed and the company is looking for funding from the European Union (EU) for its innovative design and is in negotiations with a number of ship operators who are interested in developing the lightweight vessel for commercial operations. In fact Veikko Hintsanen, director at Laffcomp, said: “Tere have been several enquiries and we expect negotiations with these parties should be concluded by the end of this year” “Te crucial domestic market in Finland
is to have three bridges up to 8m airdraſt in Keitele Päijänne for tens of millions of cubic metres per year of woodchips from forests to power stations. We may not forget also the 150 year ‘war’ between rail and inland navigation in state budgets whether to get canal- river connections from Päijänne to the Baltic Sea or do we rely on rail and in trucking,” said Mr Hintsanen. Whether the Bioship’s first customer
is the power station at Jyväskylä with its regular requirement for woodchip fuel, or the crushed stone from Finland to Russia
An artists impression of the 110m, 1000dwt, Bioship multipurpose vessel design, the hull can be adapted for use as a container, bulk, or rail car carrier.
26 The Naval Architect July/August 2011
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