Corps looks at LNG/CNG fueling

USACE fleet includes M/V Stephenson II, a towboat built in 2010 by Patti Marine.

DECEMBER 11, 2013 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is looking at the possibility of operating some of its vessels on Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) and/or Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel.

Bristol, RI, headquartered naval architecture and marine engineering firm Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. says it has been awarded a task order for an Alternative Fuel (LNG/CNG) Initiative through its Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering contract with the Corps’ Marine Design Center (MDC).

Bristol Harbor Group will analyze a the suitability of a subset of the USACE fleet for conversion to LNG or CNG fueling. As part of that effort, sources of LNG or CNG will be investigated so that fuel availability can be considered in a down select process.

Bristol Harbor Group says that it expects to complete the task order in September 2013 and that once the analysis stage is complete, USACE will down select to a single vessel for further investigation. Bristol Harbor Group will then design the modification, and USACE will decide whether or not to move forward with physical modifications to an actual vessel.

“Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. is very excited to be working with such a forward looking organization as Marine Design Center, who understands the potential benefits that LNG propulsion represents,” says Greg Beers, P.E., the firm’s President and Principal Naval Architect.