COMPANY: Bureau Veritas approves design for LNG-powered ultra-large containership
Tuesday, 07 February 2012 01:42
(EnergyAsia, February 7, 2012 Tuesday) --- Leading international classification society Bureau Veritas said it has approved in-principle the basic design of a 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent (TEU) containership to be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).
South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, liner major CMA-CGM and Bureau Veritas jointly developed the design.
“The market will determine when these ships can be ordered and built, but this is a real milestone as for the first time we have a fully worked and approved design for a main line ultra-large containership running on LNG.
“After an in depth HAZID analysis we can say with confidence that there are no technical or safety barriers to introducing LNG as a fuel for long-haul large containerships. Major operational savings are deliverable, combined with very much lower air emissions.
“The key feature of this design is that the vessel can also run on high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) if required, increasing flexibility in the period before LNG bunkering is widely available.”
The 14,000-TEU vessel will be powered by a MAN Electronic–Gas Injection (ME-GI) 2-stroke dual fuel engine made by MAN Diesel.
According to Bureau Veritas, this delivers the highest efficiency among existing propulsion systems and works by simultaneous dual burning of HFO and LNG.
The basic design is for a 365.5 m load vessel with a design draft of 14 m and a design speed of 24 knots. In the dual-fuel configuration, a 22,490 cubic metre (cbm) LNG prismatic tank would be installed under the forward accommodation, and there would be a bunker tank for heavy fuel oil aft of 4,430 cbm capacity.
The LNG tank would be a Daewoo patent ACT-IB Aluminium Cargo Tank – IMO type B independent LNG tank with poly-urethane foam (PUF) panel type insulation.
The main engine would be rated at MCR 72,285 kW and the vessel would have a range of 25,000 miles if fully bunkered.
Mr Segretain said: “Compared to the same ship with a conventional fuel power plant there will be extra capital cost for the engine and for the LNG tank and gas handling system, and there is a loss of cargo space equivalent to 438 TEUs to make room for the gas tank and equipment. But the extra capital cost and the loss of earnings on a theoretical full ship are more than offset by the fuel economies and lower emissions of this design.”
