Inland shipping vessel Sendo Liner, built by Concordia Damen, has won the prestigious KNVTS Ship of the Year 2019 Maritime Award.
The award jury highlighted the vessel’s ‘future-proof’ propulsion configuration (diesel-electric supplemented with a battery pack) as a crucial factor in selecting the Sendo Liner as winner. The award was presented at the 2019 Maritime Awards Gala.
Sendo Liner is an inland shipping container ship with dimensions 110m x 11.45m x 3.2m (LxWxT). She was designed by Concordia Damen in close collaboration with its client, and owner of the vessel, Sendo Shipping.
During the design of the ship, Concordia Damen and Sendo Shipping paid extensive attention to making the ship as efficient, economical and clean as possible in its task of container transport on inland waterways. The design brief also included the requirement to make the vessel future-proof.
Looking at these characteristics, Sendo Liner has an optimised layout that has increased its loading capacity by 8% relative to a vessel of similar size.
Moreover, the vessel has an innovative ballast system which allows it to increase its air draft when it passes fully loaded under bridges.
The vessel’s propulsion set-up deserves attention; she is diesel-electric backed up with a large battery pack that can be recharged via a shore connection.
Compared to similar inland shipping vessels, it is this propulsion configuration in addition to the increased cargo volume and reduced hull resistance that represents a major step forward in terms of fuel efficiency.
Indeed, these three factors combined mean that Sendo Liner achieves a 40 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions per container transported.
