“There will be a much more diverse fuel palette, with not just one fuel but many different types and LNG will be one of them”
Rolls-Royce vp of innovation, engineering and technology Oskar Levander
ship operators to consider the use of LNG. While BC Ferries has announced that it will use LNG for all its newbuilds and is examining the possibility of retrofitting its current fleet to use it. As more and more ferries begin to use LNG, its bunkering
infrastructure should improve and there are already some examples of this trend. Norwegian local car ferry Fjalir underwent an extensive
refit last year to be converted into Seagas, the world’s first LNG bunkering vessel. Europe’s Trans-European Transport Network (TEN) executive agency contributed US$335,000 towards the converted vessel, which will transport gas to Viking Grace. Seagas, which will carry LNG from Stockholm’s Nynashamn harbour, has tanks that can hold up to 70 tonnes of LNG. This can be transferred in one hour – precisely the turnaround time of Viking Grace while in port. In the past, the ferry’s refuelling had been done by road tanker, a less efficient system. The launch of Fjord Line’s new cruiseferries will also improve
LNG facilities. The two ferries will be supplied with LNG from Skangass, which will consider building a bunkering facility in the harbour of Risavika, in Norway, as a result. The gas provider’s sales manager, Gunnar Helmen, said: “This solution will considerably improve the service provided to ships, which need to be refuelled with large amounts of LNG during a short harbour stay.” He said the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning would consult shortly on this project. While Sweden currently only has one LNG terminal, at Nynashamn, another is being built at Lysekils, while Finland’s Turku Harbour is expected to open an LNG facility in the next few years. TEN is also assessing nine Baltic Sea ports for LNG fuelling roles. Other countries are also developing their LNG bunkering
facilities. Henning Pewe, Germanischer Lloyd’s (GL) leader for gas technology, told the German class society’s recent GasPax forum that, while no import terminals in Asia were currently able to distribute the gas, there were already plans for an LNG bunker facility in Singapore. He expects more to be in place by 2015. Furthermore, GL’s recently completed GasPax project focused
on developing designs for LNG-fuelled passenger ships – a further indication that LNG is ready to exert a stronger influence upon the ferry market, as well as to enter the cruise ship arena. Its project partners produced ready-for-market designs of three vessels: a megayacht, ropax ferry and a cruise ship. The designs were presented at a forum held in Hamburg.
Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaf’s Rolf Nagel unveiled the German shipyard’s idea for a dual-fuel, 199m vessel, with space for 600 passengers. Mr Nagel indicated that using LNG had posed a challenge because the tanks required are larger than those used for diesel, but that the design had worked to minimise the impact on the cargo hold, engine room and endurance of the vessel. The 585m3 type C bilobe tank gave the vessel a one-week bunkering cycle but resulted in the loss of 25 lane-m of vehicle capacity and 5,000 n-miles of endurance. Mr Nagel said the extra costs associated with an LNG installation had a payback time of one and a half to two years. Furthermore, the external costs associated with the gas in terms of reduced emissions to air were much lower than with conventional fuels. This was “an important factor when looking ahead to an increasing stringent regulatory environment,” he noted. Meanwhile, Gerhard Untiedt, the research and development
manager at German shipyard Meyer Werft, presented a mid-sized cruise ship design with dual fuel engines and a passenger capacity of 2,000. The two 618m3 tanks would enable the vessel to undertake a typical one-week cruise running on LNG alone, he said. The gas fuel systems in all of the GasPax project’s designs
were devised by TGE Marine Gas Engineering. Hans-Christian Haarmann-Kühn, its head of engineering, told forum delegates that existing Norwegian ferries using LNG had opted for a standardised tank design, with a “highly efficient” vacuum tank operating at 6-8 bar, with 8-10 bar pressure within the tank itself. This, he suggested, was a potential solution for tanks of up to 1,000m3, but the layout of the system meant that such a design would not fit within every vessel configuration. The launch of new LNG passenger ship designs such as
those created by GasPax, the boosting of infrastructure and growing list of ferries deploying LNG is laying the foundations for greater use of this fuel within the passenger ship sector. PST
Members of the GasPax forum receive their certificates for their involvement in the design of LNG passenger ships: From left to right: Dr Pierre C Sames, GL head of research and rule development, Rolf Nagel, Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, Dr Bernhard Urban, Lürssen, Gerhard Untiedt, Meyer Werft, Hans-Christian Haarmann-Kühn, TGE Marine Gas Engineering
www.passengership.info Passenger Ship Technology I 2nd Quarter 2013 I 65
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