Coming away from the opening day of Nor-Fishing 2022 with this year’s Nor-Fishing Foundation Innovation Award was the partnership Erwin Jager of Ulstein Design & Solutions AS and Tore Roaldsnes of Bluewild AS for the ground-breaking vessel ECOFIVE.
“Many people have worked for a long time to get to where we are now. Getting this recognition at the end-phase of the project is a relief and a confirmation that the industry sees the value of the work we have done,” Roaldsnes said.
Jager explained that the partners started with completely blank sheets when they began the ECOFIVE process.
“We configured from scratch what an efficient, sustainable and safe fishing vessel should be – and then we built [it] piece by piece. It has been a long and demanding process – but also very rewarding and exciting” he said.
According to the Nor-Fishing Foundation, the judging panel were impressed by the innovative work of the companies.
It recognised the ECOFIVE (ECO-friendly Fishing Vessel) had been developed with the setting of ambitious requirements for the lowest possible consumption of energy, the highest possible utilisation of the catch, extraction of nutritional value and the highest possible quality of end-product.
Trawl handling consists of splitting the trawl on the trawl slip and leading the trawl bag with the fish into a water-filled catch reception area below the vessel’s waterline. As such, the fish are under water all the time and not exposed to the same physical stress as when the trawl is pulled over the trawl slip and emptied into receiving bins.
In the live fish tanks, the water exchange, oxygen supply and temperature control are all controlled. From the tanks, the fish are transported in stages to the upper production deck using positive pressure, which minimises damage to the fish.
After bluing, the fish is run through cooling pipes which reduces their temperature. This also improves bleeding and faster freezing.
The freezer is powered by CO2 gas, which is a safe alternative and can provide temperatures down to -35 degrees alongside energy-efficient freezing.
ECOFIVE’s onboard factory can produce whitefish fillets and cook and single-freeze prawns or raw prawns. All by-catches and residual raw materials are taken care of.
The hybrid power and propulsion system, which combines the best features of diesel-electric and diesel-mechanical propulsion, is supported by a large battery pack. Two large propellers with rudder nozzles increase manoeuvrability and towing power and help to minimise energy loss during rudder deflection.
Excess energy, which is returned from the winches, is stored in the battery pack and excess heat from the engines is recovered and used where needed on the vessel.
Based on the operational profile of the boat, the propulsion system and system integration, fuel savings of at least 25% per kg of fish product produced compared to a conventional power system are estimated.
In some operations, together with the other cost-saving measures onboard, fuel savings can reach approximately 40%. This means significantly reduced fuel costs and a significant reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases.
