Fred. Olsen Case Study
Sector: Marine and offshore
Equipment: G50 Gobi Food Waste Dryer
The backstory
International shipping business Fred. Olsen was established in 1848 by three Norwegian brothers. Today, the firm has significantly expanded globally and now focuses on renewable energy – dealing with wind farm development and operation plus offshore wind installations, as well as cruises, real estate, and more.
The Fred. Olsen offshore wind firm, Windcarrier, took delivery of its second seaborne jack-up vessel – the Bold Tern – in January 2013. Accompanying its sister ship, the Brave Tern, the 132m vessel – complete with helipad – set off from its shipbuilders facility in Jebel Ali, to start work in the north German sea, installing 80 wind turbines at the Riffgat offshore wind farm.
The challenge
With 80 staff onboard the fully loaded vessel for weeks at a time, it’s no surprise that space is always at a premium.
Service and supply vessels might head over to the ship after a few weeks – transporting goods and removing waste – but during the time between these visits, the crew and galley still continue to generate waste that requires dealing with.
Many marine vessels store food wastes in refrigerated rooms, others use macerators and pump the waste into a holding tank deep in the bowels of the ship, while others keep it in sealed barrels on deck until the next opportunity arises to dispose of them.
With the Bold Tern generating up to 175kgs of waste per week, storage was causing another issue – the food waste was emitting barrel-expanding gases, which when mixed with heat, can become a safety hazard.
As a result, the ship therefore needed a solution to both treat and store the putrescible food waste generated on board, that was both space saving and efficient.
The solution
Fred. Olsen contacted the Tidy Planet team to help find a solution, and we recommended using a G50 Gobi Food Waste Dryer, to reduce the moisture content and convert it into an inert powder.
During the drying process, the water within the waste evaporates, thus reducing its overall moisture and mass by up to 90%. The end product is a sterilised, dry, and odourless output, which can be stored for many weeks without degrading. This meant that the ship could store the material on board without fear of the barrels expanding on deck.
The Bold Tern now has 80% less food waste to store in the ship’s refrigerators, fewer hazardous containers, and a small-scale dehydrating system which is compact and doesn’t take up valuable space.