By Atuna
Vigo based fishing company Pescapuerta, the number two company in frozen fish on the Spanish market, and the technological development company Vicusdt started a project that should result in up to 30 percent energy savings in big freezer vessels. According to Pescapuerta, such savings can be reached by applying more efficient systems on their two big freezer trawlers.
The project forms part of a five year plan of the company to bring back the energy consumption of their boats on a substantial lower level and, as such, contributes to cost savings and a more sustainable fisheries. The objective is ‘educing the environmental impact of our activities and choose for a sustainable development’, the company stated. The two biggest freezer vessels of the company, which are active in the South West Atlantic, will be used to apply the new energy systems. The investments in the project, which total amounts were not revealed, will be earned back ‘in a minimum period of three months and a maximum period of five years’, the company revealed in a statement.
According to the plan, the savings must be made in a better planned and managed way of using the energy. The two vessels fish on different types of squid during a period of 6 months. The long period of navigating at open sea, as well as the vessel operations during the actual fishing, make it possible to optimize the energy consumption of the vessel engines. With a daily consumption of 160.000 kWh, the vessels could reduce an important part of the operating costs and therefore lower the breakeven-point of the vessel trip.
One of the plans to save energy is a study of the hydrodynamic behavior of the propulsion, which is the principal cause of the energy consumption. The other is the resistance to the advance of the hull. Vicusdt, which is just like Pescapuerta based in Vigo, will also do a thermal analysis and will investigate the electrical machines on board. The company already did surveys on 27 Spanish fishing vessels for companies like Pescanova.