Van Oord Upgrades Nexus Cable Laying Vessel to Reduce Emissions

Van Oord’s ten-year-old cable laying vessel (CLV) Nexus has been equipped with advanced selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems said to reduce 80% of nitrogen (NOx) emissions.

Damen Shipyards Group, who built the cable layer ten years ago, installed five SCR units on the Nexus, one for each engine.

SCR, an advanced emissions control technology, contains a catalytic converter behind the engine which reduces NOx to an absolute minimum as it works by a catalyst which reacts with injected urea, chemically removing NOx from the vessel’s exhaust emissions.

With this upgrade, Nexus is now fully IMO Tier III compliant, Van Oord said.

The entire conversion process, which took two months to complete, also included the installation of the reducing agent tanks and additional pipe systems.

“With increasingly stringent emissions regulations, she was in need of an upgrade in order to prepare for the future. Therefore, Nexus recently returned to Damen who built her 10 years ago. She was docked in Amsterdam for her midlife maintenance, but more importantly, Nexus received an upgrade that will future-proof her by reducing 80% of NOx emissions,” Van Oord reported.

The 122.68-meter-long vessel was built in 2014 and delivered to Van Oord in early 2015. It can accommodate 90 persons.