VESSEL REVIEW | Bad Deutsch-Altenburg – Low-emission vessel for Danube maintenance works

Viadonau, the Austrian government agency tasked with maintenance and development of the Danube River, has taken delivery of a new shallow-draught workboat built by Erlenbacher Schiffswerft of Germany.

The vessel is named Bad Deutsch-Altenburg after a town in Lower Austria that also serves as its home port. Its duties will include marking of waterways and maintenance of buoys and other aids to navigation to ensure the safe passage of vessel traffic through the Danube.

The vessel has a length of 22.54 metres, a beam of 5.61 metres, a draught of only 1.3 metres, and two 259kW main engines that deliver speeds of up to 12.1 knots. The engines are built to comply with EU Stage V emissions regulations and are equipped with catalytic converters and particulate filters.

The engines may be configured to run on alternative fuels that promise lower emissions. Specifically, Viadonau also intends to have the engines run on hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO), which will enable greenhouse gas emissions savings of up to 90 per cent compared to conventional fuels.

The owner said additional energy savings are possible due to the arrangement of the propellers in nozzles, the use of exhaust heat for heating, and the installation of a fuel consumption measurement system to help ensure more energy-efficient navigation.

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