Apple shape tanks give new MHI LNG ship more capacity

Big apples: Sayaringo STaGE's four tanks give it 180,000 cu.m capacity

NOVEMBER 27, 2014 —Shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has completed development of a new design LNG carrier with apple shaped LNG tanks. Evolved from Moss type spherical tanks, their upper half bulges more than the lower, enabling a near 16% increase in LNG carrying capacity without changing the ship’s width.

As in MHI’s “Sayaendo,” or peapod design, there is a continuous cover over the tanks.

MHI is calling the design the Sayaringo STaGE: Saya from Sayaendo, ring from the Japanese word for apple and STaGE being an acronym for the ship’s hybrid steam turbine and gas engine power plant.

The components of the Sayaringo STaGE system are the “Ultra Steam Turbine plant” (UST), a highly efficient reheating steam type marine turbine developed independently by MHI, a dual-fuel diesel engine capable of operating on both gas and oil, and an electric propulsion motor. Plant efficiency has been significantly improved through the UST’s effective use of the engine’s waste heat, resulting in a propulsion system enabling high-efficiency navigation throughout a full range of speeds.

MHI says that use of the hybrid propulsion system boosts fuel efficiency by more than 20% compared to the Sayaendo (and more than 40% vis-à-vis earlier carriers). Leveraging the Sayaringo STaGE’s capacity for transporting North American shale

The basic design of the Sayaringo STaGE has now been completed, with the vessel’s LOA (length overall) set at 297.5 m, width at 48.94 m, depth at 27.0 m and draft at 11.5m.

Four apple-shaped tanks provide 180,000 cu.m total LNG tank capacity, but capacity can be set in accordance with the customer’s transport needs.

Since MHI developed the Sayaendo in 2011, a total of eight vessels have been ordered, including one ordered through MI LNG Company, Limited, a joint venture with Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. Now, with the Sayaringo STaGE as a successor ship to the Sayaendo that offers increased capacity and greater fuel performance, MHI says it aims to conduct brisk marketing activities the ships, for its next-generation LNG carriers delivering superlative environmental performance in its quest to make a robust contribution to the global LNG transport industry.