Spartacus does justice to her name

SPARTACUS IS A CUTTER SUCTION DREDGER (CSD) THAT HAS BEEN UNDER CONSTRUCTION SINCE 2017 TO ENTER IN SERVICE FOR DEME. SHE IS THE LARGEST AND MOST POWERFUL SHIP OF HER TYPE IN THE WORLD. THE VESSEL MEASURES 164M LONG AND HAS A TOTAL POWER OUTPUT OF 44,180KW. SHE IS POWERED BY four Wärtsilä 46DF and two Wärtsilä 20DF engines, which can operate on liquefed natural gas, diesel fuel or heavy fuel oil, and she is the frst CSD to be LNG-fuel capable. She can dredge at depths of up to 45m, which is 10m deeper than any previous CSD design.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF DEME.

Deme ordered Spartacus in March 2017 from Dutch shipbuilder Royal IHC to a design jointly developed by Deme, Royal IHC, and Vuyk Engineering Roterdam. Her keel was laid in December at Royal IHC’s shipyard in Krimpen aan den IJssel and she was launched in November 2018. She was expected to enter service by mid-2019, but the pandemic and some unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances signifcantly delayed this. Finally, the tme has come for Deme to ofcially launch Spartacus with an ofcial naming ceremony.

Celebration

Although it was impossible to engage in Deme’s traditonal naming festvites and family day given the COVID-19 restrictons, Deme was honoured that Mrs Annik Penders, spouse of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, accepted the role of the new vessel’s godmother. The naming ceremony, organised in May 2021, stll managed to capture the spirit of the occasion with all the traditonal rituals as Mrs Penders gracefully smashed a botle of champagne against the hull. Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO of Deme Group, shares, “Spartacus was designed with three main priorites at her core: pushing the

The ceremony still managed to capture the spirit of the occasion with all the traditional rituals.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo at the naming ceremony of Spartacus. The vessel can dredge at depths of up to 45m, which is 10m deeper than any previous CSD design.

boundaries of dredging potental, unprecedented autonomy, and minimising the impact on the environment. We are proud to be a technological and sustainable leader in the industry, and Spartacus embodies this drive and innovatve spirit. Deme would like to thank Mrs Penders very much for being the godmother of this exceptonal vessel and for joining us in celebratng this milestone.”

Smart innovations

Spartacus will drive new levels of performance in the dredging industry given its unbeatable pumping power and heavyduty cuter ladder, which means that projects that were infeasible before will now be possible. In additon to her impressive power, Spartacus is the frst cuter sucton dredger in the industry that can be powered by LNG. The vessel also has several additonal energy saving features such as a waste heat recovery system. Spartacus incorporates other smart innovatons to maximise productvity, including an onboard workshop with a vibraton-insulated foor, which makes it possible to carry out maintenance and repair of the cuterheads during operatons. This enables the mega cuter sucton dredger to achieve unequalled uptme and forms a major advantage when working in remote parts of the world.

Commitment to sustainability

Making all operatons environmentallyfriendly and becoming climate neutral by 2050 is one of Deme’s most important strategic priorites. In line with this ambiton, Deme’s feet investment strategy is taking a two-pronged approach to making sure they can achieve this goal. Firstly, they are heavily investng in fuel saving technologies and ways to do more with less fuel and secondly, they are investng in the use of future fuels with very low or zero greenhouse gas emissions. All six engines can run on almost all fuels available today, including LNG and biodiesel. Spartacus is designed to use energy as efciently as possible. The air conditoning can be powered by cold recovery from LNG, while the heat from the main engine is converted into electrical power through a dedicated steam turbine.

i. deme-group.com

SPECS

DIMENSIONS Length o.a. Breadth o.a. Moulded depth Draught minimum Draught maximum

DREDGING DEPTH Minimum Maximum

DIAMETER Discharge pipe

POWER Total installed

164m 34m 10m 6.4m 7m

6.4m 45m

1,200mm

44,180kW