The research ship Ludwig Prandtl is operated by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG) and is of central importance for the research work of the HZG and its partners in the North and Baltic Seas. It was built in 1983, extended in 2002/2003 and was in use on average for around 225 days per year from 2013 to 2019.
Due to its age, it is necessary to replace it with a new building ("Ludwig Prandtl II"), which - as before - is planned to complement the other coastal research vessels in Germany and can be used in the entire area of rivers, in the shallow water area of the estuaries and the Wadden Sea allowed to deep water. This results in specific requirements for the draft, the height of the ship and suitability for the sea. The use of inflatable and rescue boats on board the ship extends the range of applications, especially when using the new building for multi-platform experiments. The Ludwig Prandtl II is intended to cover a wide, interdisciplinary spectrum of coastal research, materials research and polymer research and can thus be used in a variety of ways by the HZG and partners for research and teaching.
With this tender, a general planner is sought who will prepare the planning for the new Ludwig Prandtl II building with all the necessary equipment and who will take over the construction supervision after the planning has been completed.
Further details are contained in the service description, which is already available as a draft in the competition. The details of the service description may change in the further course of the procedure.
The following unique selling points were formulated for the successor to the Ludwig Prandtl II and designed in a feasibility study in order to offer a clear positioning of the possible uses of the ship for the research community within the entire fleet of German research ships:
- Can be used up to the shelf edge, in shallow waters and in rivers. The current draft of the Ludwig Prandtl of max. 1.70 m when fully loaded must not be exceeded,
- The speed of 12 kn must be safely reached in moderate wind and sea conditions, which are to be specified in the planning phase (calculation and towing test). This represents an expansion of the area of application for day trips,
- Separate wet and electronics laboratories,
- Deck space for containers (max. 20 ft) or for 2 additional inflatable boats or 1 container and 1 additional inflatable boat; variable fixed points,
- Folding crane with a lifting weight of at least 5 t for loading containers, fuel cells and tanks for hydrogen (loading into the hydrogen system laboratory),
- A-frame at the rear, as well as side crane / L-frame for the insertion of measuring devices; flexible side winch / small crane for special applications (e.g. contamination-free sampling) (specification to be determined),
- Cost-optimized operation of the ship through diesel-electric drive with power management system (intelligent control panel with checking of power reserves and current power consumption),
- Integration of a temporary supply of the on-board power network and the drive via fuel cells, whereby new metal hydride tank systems developed at HZG are also to be tested under real conditions. The focus is on testing hydrogen-based energy supply systems. Membrane modules, which are currently being developed by polymer research at HZG, are to be used for the charge air treatment of port diesel, for example. The resulting oxygen-enriched electricity can be fed to the fuel cells in order to increase their performance and exploit additional synergy effects,
- Sufficiently large space reserves should be planned in the area of the exhaust gas system in order to test various systems and materials in the area of exhaust gas treatment,
- The requirements for the Blue Angel or at least equivalent - (RAL-ZU 141) "Environmentally friendly ship design" must be met. Further equipment features, such as a detailed battery concept, should be checked in the planning phase,
- Approval as inland shipping (SUK acceptance).
Further details are contained in the service description, which is already available as a draft in the competition. The feasibility study will be made available to the selected bidders after the competition has ended. The details of the service description may change in the further course of the procedure.