Becker Marine’s Bumblebee Ready for Cruise Season

Supply of cruise ships with liquefied natural gas (LNG) as marine fuel at the port of Hamburg is set to start as of May, right in time for the beginning of the cruise ship season.

Namely, Becker Marine Systems’ Hummel LNG Hybrid Barge is ready for commissioning as it has passed its technical trial with flying colours.

“The operation of all five of the Hummel’s generator sets recently took place as part of class acceptance,“ reported Dirk Lehmann and Henning Kuhlmann, both Managing Directors of
Becker Marine Systems.

In collaboration with Bureau Veritas, the overall LNG Hybrid Barge system was tested and a variety of large load impacts and load spikes were simulated. The overall load transfer of 0 to 7.5megawatts of power was achieved well below the time of two minutes set by the classification society.

“There is thus nothing standing in the way of the LNG Hybrid Barge’s first planned supply of power to cruise ships over the course of May,” Hans J. Gätjens, Vice President Marine at Bureau Veritas, responsible for the Central Europe region.

The LNG Hybrid Barge was launched in Komárno, Slovakia at the beginning of September 2014 and was christened the Hummel following passage to the Port of Hamburg. It works like a floating power plant and, compared to conventional marine diesel with 0.1% sulphur content, emits no sulphur dioxides or soot.