Limassol port welcomes Althaia barge, pioneering green energy for ships

The docking of the Althaia barge was successfully completed on August 13th at the Port of Limassol, the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI) said in a statement on Friday, adding that the barge will act as a green cold ironing platform, utilising compressed biomethane and providing green electrification to vessels at anchorage.

As stated, in the framework of the BioCNG-to-CI project, InoMob, as the project coordinator, CMMI, Petronav Shipmanagement, and Armenis Biogas Plant are working collaboratively to deliver a floating power plant powered by biomethane by the end of the project, offering a green cold ironing solution and aiming to promote circular economy.

It is added that a project meeting was organised on June 20th at the premises of Petronav Shipmanagement at the Port of Limassol, where the BioCNG-to-CI partners discussed the progress of the project and upcoming plans.

According to the statement, the first completed project milestone was the operation of the IoT platform and the predictive maintenance algorithm developed by the Cyprus Institute for Sea and Shipping, which was tested on the biomethane power couple (power generator) before its installation on the barge, while the second concerned the successful docking of the Althaia barge on August 13th at the Port of Limassol.

It is further noted that the next steps of the project include the biomethane genset installation on-board the barge and the conduction of vibration analysis, on-board measurements utilising the developed IoT system for performance testing on the biomethane genset, the demonstration with M/T Alexandria or M/T Astraia vessel (vessels managed by Petronav Shipmanagement Ltd), and the organisation of workshops to present the project’s activities and results, as well as synergies with other funded projects (ZEST, Green Marine, BlueBARGE).

The project was officially launched on 1st January 2023 and has received funding from the ‘CODEVELOP-GT’ programme of the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) under grant agreement No: CODEVELOP-GT/0322/0014, the statement concludes.