Hyundai Heavy develops new LNG tank design

NOVEMBER 29, 2012 — Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the world’s largest shipbuilder, announced today that it has developed an independent liquefied natural gas storage tank model, the Lobe-Bundle Tank.

The Lobe-Bundle Tank uses ring-shaped plates instead of conventional flat plates to reduce the weight of the tank and building cost significantly. The tank is built using spray-type insulation rather than panel-type insulation, substantially reducing construction time.

While the storage tank is designed for 165,000 cbm LNG carriers, it can also be used in LPG carriers, LNG FPSO, LNG fueled vessels, and LNG bunkering systems.

Hyundai Heavy says the system won Approval in Principle from the Japanese classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (NK) in June 2012 and that the technology meets IMO standards requiring high level of structural analysis and fatigue/fracture analysis for Type B independent LNG storage tanks.