VESSEL REVIEW | Anji Ocean – Research and test vessel with electric propulsion and DP2 capability
Zhejiang Anji Ocean Technology has been operating the marine research and test vessel Anji Ocean (安极海洋; Anji Haiyang) since mid-2024. The vessel was built by Zhoushan H&H Ship Engineering to a design by Zhejiang Xinhai Ship Design and Research Institute, launched in Zhoushan in June 2024, and put through sea trials the following month before entering marine survey and test duties.
China Classification Society (CCS), which carried out construction inspection, described Anji Ocean as Zhejiang province's first privately owned 2,000-ton-class marine research and test vessel with fully electric propulsion.
The newbuild has an LOA of 72.66 metres (238.4 feet), a length between perpendiculars of 66.95 metres (219.7 feet), a moulded depth of 5.8 metres (19 feet) and a mean draught of 4.3 metres (14 feet), according to the CCS register. She has a gross tonnage of 2,089, a net tonnage of 626, and a deadweight of 80.
The vessel can achieve a maximum speed of 14.5 knots and a range of 10,000 nautical miles. She can accommodate 40 people for 60 days of living and research operations and can work under wind conditions of up to Beaufort Force 10.
Capable of accurate station-keeping essential for survey work
Powermaster supplied the vessel's electric propulsion and azimuthing thruster package. The company lists the main azimuthing rudder-propellers, a bow side thruster, propulsion motors, active front end propulsion frequency converters, the electrical distribution system, the control system and a DP2 system within its scope of supply.
Electrical power comes from two 2,000kW generator sets feeding the propulsion motors. The vessel is generator-fed rather than battery-electric.
The propulsion arrangement consists of two rudderless azimuthing propulsion units that rotate through 360 degrees. Combined with the bow thruster and the DP2 system, this gives the vessel station-keeping capability for survey work without conventional rudders.
The CCS register gives the hull class notation as ★CSA with Ice Class B and the machinery notation as ★CSM with the additional mark BRC. It does not list a DP class notation, redundancy arrangement or station-keeping limits.
Multi-disciplinary platform boasting comfortable accommodation
CCS attributed four operating characteristics to the electric propulsion and azimuthing arrangement: high propulsion efficiency, low energy consumption, flexible handling and low noise.
CCS linked the noise performance directly to the vessel's research role, saying the arrangement is favourable to the underwater acoustic environment during scientific operations.
The society also said the configuration gave a more stable working environment on deck and improved accommodation comfort for crew and researchers (though no measured underwater radiated noise figures have been released).
For scientific work, the vessel carries a meteorological laboratory and a data analysis laboratory, along with dedicated constant-temperature and low-temperature sample storage rooms.
CCS said the vessel can support research in marine geology, geophysics, marine energy exploration and meteorology, and describes it as a diversified, intelligent integrated research platform.
The electric propulsion system and the specialist scientific outfit made the build more demanding than a conventional commercial newbuild, according to the shipyard.
"The highlight of this vessel is the use of fully electric propulsion,” Xia A-Ping, General Manager of Zhoushan H&H Ship Engineering, told Zhejiang Online. “Because the equipment carried differs from that of an ordinary merchant vessel, it placed higher and more stringent demands on our construction processes and technology."
The same report said the project went through substantial changes during construction to meet the owner's customised research requirements. The yard worked with the design institute on continuing modifications while integrating a large number of equipment items and commissioning the systems, work that the builder said was undertaken with limited prior experience of the configuration.
