Deltamarin to design LNG/green hydrogen-fuelled ferry for Fennorail

Finnish ship designer Deltamarin has signed a deal with compatriot transport company Fennorail to design a train ferry that runs on LNG and green hydrogen.

Deltamarin has signed a contract with Oy Fennorail for the conceptual design of the EUROCARRIER train ferry capable of carrying both train and truck cargo.

The goal of the EUROCARRIER train ferry is to connect Finland to the European TEN-T railway networks and create a connection across Eastern Europe to Central Europe and the Mediterranean. Approximately 400,000 trucks per year, or almost 1,100 trucks per day travel on car ferries between Finland and Estonia. The emission footprint from heavy goods vehicles is more than five times bigger than rail traffic, so significant emission reduction can be achieved by shifting a portion of the cargo from road to rail.

The vessel will operate in the Baltic Sea and have a capacity of more than 1,000 lane meters for train cargo and an additional 1,500 lane meters for trucks.

The objective is to develop the world’s greenest train ferry by optimising the design and selecting a machinery system compatible with alternative fuels such as LNG and green hydrogen.

Kaj Jansson, member of the board of FENNORAIL, said: “We strive to make the train ferry climate-friendly and profitable. The train ferry will have multifuel marine engines that can run on either pure LNG, a mixture of LNG and green hydrogen or marine gas oil (MGO). Ships propulsion system is arranged by two 360-degree rotating POD’s which increases the propulsion efficiency and ships maneuverability.”

“We are very happy that Fennorail with its partners have selected Deltamarin to design this unique vessel, which aims to connect Finland to the European railway network and support the goals of the Paris Agreement by moving part of the road cargo onto rail, offering significant emission cuts per transported cargo tonne-kilometre,” added Deltamarin’s sales manager Jaakko Lappi.