Baleària converted LNG ferry Martín i Soler to set sail

Spanish ferry operator Baleària will put to work its converted LNG vessel on 30 June on the Barcelona-Eivissa route to cut CO2 emissions.

Martín i Soler is Baleària’s eight LNG-powered ship. It is also its fifth ship to which the engines have been adapted to sail on LNG, with the remaining three being LNG-powered newbuilds.

The retrofit operation was carried out in recent months at the West Sea shipyard in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. It involved converting the ship’s engines to MAN dual-fuel 9L51 / 60DF engines.

LNG storage tank has been installed on one of its inner decks, which allows it to have a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles.

Thanks to this conversion, the ferry will stop emitting about 885 tonnes of NOx annually (85 per cent less) and about 9,200 tonnes of CO2 (30 per cent less).

Baleària’s latest LNG ship, pioneering fast ferry Eleanor Roosevelt was officially unveiled in May.

Besides Eleanor Roosevelt, the ferry operator’s LNG-powered newbuilds include Hypatia de Alejandría and its sister vessel Marie Curie.