BioMar and Bio Feeder building cutting-edge hybrid vessel for shipping fish feed

A collaboration between BioMar Norway and Bio Feeder is intensifying, as the companies get deeper into the development of the Kryssholm – a new cutting-edge hybrid vessel for shipping fish feed.

BioMar Norway and Bio Feeder announced in July 2020 that they were extending their collaboration on the hybrid vessel, which is slated to be completed in 2021. It will be the first ship in Norway to use battery power in fish feed deliveries, the companies said.

“With this vessel’s cutting-edge hybrid technology, we are continuing to develop our role as an innovator in the aquaculture industry,” BioMar Supply Chain Director Tore Gunnar Wikdal said.

The Kryssholm will be chartered during BioMar’s high season, with the first feed deliveries taking place in the summer of 2021, Wikdal said. The vessel – which is owned and operated by Bio Feeder – will have a cargo capacity of more than 3,000 metric tons and will boast an overall length of “no less than 89.9 [meters] and a beam of 13.6 [meters],” making it one of the market’s largest feed ships, the firms noted.

“We are very much looking forward to upgrading the Kryssholm. This is a very exciting project and we are delighted to be continuing our collaboration with BioMar in this venture,” Bio Feeder’s Nils Tore Øpstad Melingen said.

A combination of diesel engines and hybrid batteries will allow the Kryssholm to possess “noiseless DP delivery and low energy consumption on delivery,” the collaborators confirmed.

“During DP discharging, the ship will use batteries and auxiliary engines. Using the hybrid solution during discharging enables both emissions and consumption to be reduced,” Melingen said.

The NOx Fund – which was established in 2008 and aims to reduce emissions by business and industry in Norway to ensure the country meets the Gothenburg Protocol – is behind the financial support for the vessel’s conversion, “with the grant conditional upon the Kryssholm being fitted with a system for treating the exhaust gases produced by its engines,” BioMar said.

Photo courtesy of BioMar