LNG ferry for Brittany Ferries

The GB£175m Honfleur will be built by the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellshaft shipyard in Germany and feature four engines which will feed electric generators and two electric propulsion motors with two fixed pitch efficient propellers.

Christophe Mathieu, CEO of Brittany Ferries, said: “It is important that we invest in new technologies and new vessels that respect the environment in which we operate.”

The vessel will serve the Portsmouth to Caen route and is due to be delivered in spring 2019.

Sulphur-free, it will have very low emissions of nitrogen oxide and particulate matter. It will also have lower levels of carbon dioxide than diesel following combustion, in addition to burning with no smoke.

To address the issues of LNG infrastructure, specifically the lack of storage facilities in ports served by ships, Brittany Ferries has partnered with France-headquartered Total to make Honfleur the first passenger ship in the world to be equipped with on board cranes that allow 40-foot (ISO standard) LNG containers to be lifted into a fixed position.

The containers will be transported by truck from an LNG terminal to Ouistreham and then driven on board. They will then be hoisted into position alongside a fixed LNG storage tank located at the rear of the superstructure. Upon the next call at port, empty containers will be removed and replenished with full units.

The company’s move to LNG follows a €90m investment in sulphur and particulate-reducing ‘scrubber’ technology. These exhaust emission systems have been retrospectively fitted to six Brittany Ferries ships over the last 18 months, in a project supported by around GB£5m in joint funding from the EU and its executive agency INEA and the ADEME in France.