Port of Klaipeda commissions Lithuania’s first hydrogen-electric ship

The Klaipeda State Seaport Authority has instructed Western Baltija

ship.

The tanker, which is 42 metres long and 10 metres wide, will be capable of

collecting 400 cubic metres of liquid waste. It will be fitted with two electric

motors powered by 2,000 kilowatt hour (kWh) batteries and an onboard hydrogen

fuel cell system.

To improve the quality of its garbage collecting service from ships, WBS

has opted to adopt contemporary, ecologically friendly equipment.

According to the port, the main challenge for shipbuilders is designing and

building a ship capable of collecting oily bilge water, sewage, sludge and other

trash. The ship will require waste collecting tanks and an oily bilge water

treatment plant to treat the waste waters and transmit them to the city’s

onshore wastewater treatment plant.

Algis Latakas, Director General of the Klaipėda State Seaport Authority,

said: “The Port Authority has undertaken very ambitious projects in recent

years. In a couple of years, the company will become the first one in Lithuania

not only to produce green hydrogen but also to have a hydrogen-powered ship.

“It will also clean other ships entering the port by collecting waste from

them without leaving an environmental footprint. We are proud that a new,

modern, and environmentally friendly tanker is being built not somewhere abroad,

but here in Lithuania, at the Port of Klaipėda.”

Jüri Taal, Management Board Member of Baltic Workboats, added: “It will be

the first tanker type vessel ever built with Baltic Workboats participation and

in addition to electric propulsion solution in which Baltic Workboats has

extensive expertise it will be the first vessel to be fitted with hydrogen power

plant in Baltic Workboats portfolio.”

The port authority commissioned a €12 million ($12.8 million) ship-building

project, which is being built by Baltic Workboats via a joint operating

agreement with Western Baltija Shipbuilding. The ship is scheduled to arrive in

Klaipėda before the end of next year.

In October 2023, the Port of Klaipėda successfully monitored 140 ships for

exhaust gas quality along Lithuania’s Baltic Sea coast and port waters as part

of a three-month drone mission.