OREANDA-NEWS. Rolls-Royce gas engines have powered Fjord Line ferries Bergensfjord and Stavangerford to the top two positions in the World Ports Climate Environmental Ship Index (ESI).

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled ferries are both powered by four Rolls-Royce BV12PG gas engines that drive highly efficient Rolls-Royce PROMAS integrated rudder and propellers. These ferries have achieved the top score in the index, which measured the emissions of over three thousand ships.

Of the 3194 ships currently on the ESI list, Bergensfjord scored 93.9 points followed by sister vessel Stavangerfjord with 93.5. Only fifty vessels had a score higher than 49.

“It is clear that the Rolls-Royce engines have made these ferries more environmentally-friendly than other vessels on the ESI list. We continue to improve the efficiency of our vessels and, as an example, have recently moved to LED lighting to reduce further energy consumption onboard,” said Morten Larsen, Fjord Line’s Technical & Nautical Director.

John Knudsen, President Commercial Marine, Rolls-Royce said: “These remarkable ferries are driven exclusively by natural gas. One reason for the high ESI score is that the Rolls-Royce Bergen engines only use LNG and do not need oil fuel for pilot injection. The result is that the BV12PGs emit zero oxides of sulphur, reduce oxides of nitrogen by 98% and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 23%.”

The Environmental Ship Index is a project within the World Ports Climate Initiative and is used by ports to reward shipowners for their commitment to greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

Shipowners enter their vessels voluntarily on the basis that ports offer favourable terms to those vessels that score highly. Cleaner ships will in turn help ports not only to reduce general greenhouse gas emissions but also to cut NOx which is a local air pollutant.

Delivered in 2013, the 25,000gt first of class Stavangerfjord won the Nor-Shipping Energy Efficiency award in June last year.

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

  1. Rolls-Royce’s vision is to create better power for a changing world via two main business divisions, Aerospace and Land & Sea. These business divisions address markets with two strong technology platforms, gas turbines and reciprocating engines. Aerospace comprises Civil Aerospace and Defence Aerospace. Land & Sea comprises Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
  2. Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 120 countries, comprising more than 380 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
  3. Our business is focused on the 4Cs:
    • Customer – placing the customer at the heart of our business
    • Concentration – deciding where to grow and where not to
    • Cost – continually looking to increase efficiency
    • Cash – improving financial performance.
  4. Annual underlying revenue was ?14.6 billion in 2014, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at ?73.7 billion at the end of 2014.
  5. In 2014, Rolls-Royce invested ?1.2 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
  6. Rolls-Royce employs over 54,000 people in more than 50 countries. Over 15,500 of these are engineers.
  7. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2014 we employed 354 graduates and 357 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes. Globally we have over 1,000 Rolls-Royce STEM ambassadors who are actively involved in education programmes and activities; we have set ourselves a target to reach 6 million people through our STEM outreach activities by 2020.