During an extensive refit operation lasting around 12 weeks at Navantia Cadiz carried out earlier this year, four new-generation MTU 20V1163 M84 main engines replaced the previous 1163 units on the fast ferry, taking the vessel to a new level of environmentally sound performance. Fuel consumption, and with it CO2 emissions, are expected to be 8% lower than with the previous propulsion system. Furthermore, the new Series 1163 units deliver the same power output, but with a 33% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions, thereby meeting the requirements of the IMO Tier II emissions standard.
The ferry’s automation system has also been renewed. The new MTU system not only controls and monitors engines and gearboxes, but numerous other crucial ship systems, such as fuel tanks and onboard generator sets. The system installed includes new software, screens and computers with interfaces to other systems on board.
The digital platform MTU Go! puts the finishing touch to the ferry’s all-round upgrade, allowing Balearia to remotely access the vessel’s operating data at any time, monitor its condition and predictively plan maintenance.
The upgrade was, however, by no means straightforward. The yard had to make a breach on both sides of the hull, through which twin engines, over 5m long and 3m in height, had to be moved. “We had to open both sides of the hull because the ferry has two engine rooms,” explains Justo Galán Díaz from Rolls-Royce Solutions Iberica. The mechanics unplugged all engine lines and connections and placed the engines on rails in the engine rooms. The 24-ton 1163 units were pulled along the rails and out of the vessel and positioned crosswise on a provisional platform arranged at the side of the hull. They were then craned one-by-one ashore and their replacements moved in and installed.
The Avemar Dos catamaran was originally built in 1996 by the Austal shipyard in Australia and served the Strait of Gibraltar route between Algeciras and Ceuta. Now the new re-powered ferry plies between the mainland port of Denia and the Balearic islands of Ibiza and Majorca. Besides the Avemar Dos, the company’s Ramon Lull high-speed ferry was recently re-powered using mtu engines, in this case Series 4000 units, while engines on another ferry, Nixe, were extensively overhauled.
