VARD CONTRACTS HYDRONIQ FOR SEAWATER COOLERS

VARD contracts Hydroniq for seawater coolers to deliver the marine seawater cooling system to a newbuild stern trawler currently under construction.

VARD is building the stern trawler for Norwegian fishing company Nergård Havfiske.

Under the contract, Aalesund-based Hydroniq Coolers will supply its Rack seawater cooling system to the stern trawler. This type of marine cooling system is integrated in the hull below the main engine room of the vessel, where it reduces temperatures in the ship’s engines and other auxiliary systems through use of seawater – but without taking up valuable engine room space.

“This is a repeat order of an identical stern trawler which VARD delivered to Nergård Havfiske earlier this year. We are therefore familiar with both the vessel type and the shipbuilder’s quality requirements,” says Arnt Ove Austnes, sales manager at Hydroniq Coolers.

The stern trawler is of VARD 8 02 design and is developed by Vard Design in Aalesund, Norway. Delivery of the vessel is scheduled from Vard Brattvaag in Norway in Q1 2022. The hull will be built at Vard Braila in Romania.

Hydroniq Coolers will manufacture and assemble the equipment at its headquarter outside Aalesund, Norway, and deliver it to Vard Brattvaag in Norway. The contract value is undisclosed.

The new vessel will have a length of 80 meters and a beam of 17 meters, and will be equipped with VARD’s catch handling solution with a live fish tank to keep the fish in healthy conditions until processing, an advanced fish factory, high cargo capacity for refrigerated and frozen fish, as well as ensilage tanks for storing of heads and guts to secure full utilization of biomass from the catch.

The trawler will have both diesel mechanical and diesel electric propulsion, combined with batteries and VARD’s SeaQ Energy Storage System and SeaQ Power Management System, for power optimization in all operations, resulting in environmentally friendly operations.

“The newbuild stern trawler is designed to bring the catch ashore with minimal environmental footprint. As our Rack seawater cooler is highly energy efficient with low maintenance requirements, thereby keeping emissions to air as low as possible, we know it is a good match for the trawler’s environmental profile,” adds Austnes.

The Rack system is designed to increase intervals between each clean and reduce cleaning time when cleaning is necessary. It does not require dry-docking for maintenance and cleaning as the coolers can be extracted from below the engine room, even while at sea.

Hydroniq Coolers is owned by Norwegian investment company SMV Invest AS (formerly Sperre Mek. Verksted AS).  The company’s name “Hydroniq” refers to regulation of temperature through utilisation of liquids.

Nergård Havfiske AS is located in Northern Norway. The company was established back in 1946 and has today approximately 170 employees. Nergård Havfiske is a part of the Nergård group.