Brazils green ambition

Wilson Sons’ most recent effort is ensuring that its four new tugboats, currently under construction by Damen Shipyards, are being built to IMO Tier III standard, reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by 75%.

“Nitrogen oxide is a greenhouse gas, which can be three hundred times more polluting than carbon dioxide itself,” explained Rodrigo Bastos, director of operations of the Towage unit. “Tier III is a great differential of this project and shows how much we are in the vanguard of the Brazilian naval industry,” he added.

The first tugboat is expected to start operating in February of next year and the second in August. The 25 by 13 metre vessels will have 80 tonnes of bollard pull and Escort Tug class notation.

Other initiatives include making use of a pioneering technology, the ‘twin fin’, a set of fins that increases the drag capacity during manoeuvres thus improving the tug’s performance and the Towage Operations Centre, which monitors the displacement of the tugboats, defining the best moment for the movement and controlling the speed and fuel consumption.

Recently, the company also became a member of the Carbon Disclosure Project, obtaining a result higher than the average of companies in the Latin American maritime support sector.