Francisco is a high-speed catamaran built by Incat in Hobart, Australia. It is the first large high-speed craft powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world. The project was partly financed in 2011 by Australia's Export Finance and Insurance Corporation.
She is currently the fastest passenger ship in service, reaching a speed of , although her maximum continuous speed is . It has a capacity of a thousand passengers and 150 cars, served by 24 crew. Four 340kW diesel generators provide electricity for the ship's onboard functions.
The catamaran is owned and operated by Argentine-Uruguayan ferry company Buquebus. Francisco plies the route across the Río de la Plata between Buenos Aires and Montevideo, in around two hours and 45 minutes. It has four travel classes and a duty-free shop.
HSC Francisco is named after Pope Francis.
LNG operation The company receives gas from the Vaca Muerta field via the gas network, and produces 66 tons of LNG per day from seven production units at its facility in San Vicente near Buenos Aires, sufficient for two round-trips per day for the ship.
This facility has a 4.5 MW electricity grid connection, 4 MW electricity generation, and 2,000 tonne LNG storage. The company sends the LNG in LNG-powered tank trucks to the ship, where two tankers transfer the LNG to the ship in less than an hour.
Each of the two hulls have one 43 m³ cryogenic double-wall stainless steel tank keeping the LNG at -163°C, sufficient for 4 hours of sailing to make the roundtrip to Montevideo and back. Propulsion is by two General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, coupled with two Wärtsilä water-jets, ejecting 24 tons of water per second. Each of the two turbines are started with a 200 kW engine–generator. The turbines burn marine gasoil for a few minutes, and automatically switch to LNG when the turbine exhaust is hot enough to vaporize the LNG through heat exchangers. Port manoeuvering is also handled on gasoil.
See also List of places and things named after Pope Francis
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