SVITZER Orders Two ECO-Tugs

Tuesday, September 07, 2010 by SVITZER Safety Services

As the industry leader within towage and emergency response, SVITZER continues to look for opportunities to minimise its environmental footprint. SVITZER’s environmental plan focuses on three elements:

  • Fuel efficiency programme
  • New tug design
  • Alternative fuels

As part of this plan SVITZER set a target for the CO2 emissions of the company to be reduced by 1% each year through the years 2008-2012.

In pursuit of emission reductions, SVITZER has just placed the first order for two environmental friendly tugs. The new tug design incorporates a number of new innovative technologies.

Environmentally safe, financially sound

"We are pleased to be amongst the pioneers of environmental friendly tug design. SVITZER has a long history of putting cutting-edge technologies to commercial use and our ECO-tug design is yet another example of this," CEO Jesper T. Lok says.

"Whereas the ECO-tug is a more expensive tug to build, we believe that it will be a commercial success and 'going green' makes good business sense."

Tugs of the future

Head of Group New Building, Esben H Grundtvig explains: "Developing a tug for the future, we were given a clear mandate regarding the ECO-tug - apply the latest technology to minimise emissions. It took us two years to optimise the design and I am happy to say that the ECO-tug will make a real difference.

"The new design differs in two significant ways; it is diesel electric; it incorporates SCR (selective catalyst reaction) and particulate filter. This way we expect to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 by some 10% and NOx by 70-80%."