JANUARY 19, 2016 — The first dual-fuel two-stroke engine designed and developed by Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD) equipped with a low-pressure gas admission system has successfully completed its Type Approval Test
JANUARY 12, 2016 – TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico successfully loaded LNG bunkers aboard the world’s first LNG powered containership, MV Isla Bella, in Jacksonville, FL, on January 9. Approximately 100,000 gallons of
JANUARY 11, 2016 — Two 25,600 dwt bulk carriers ordered by Finland’s ESL Shipping back in November (see earlier story) will not only be world’s first large LNG-fueled bulkers, but the first
After an extensive program of trials and tests, the 7,300 dwt vessel today departed Delfzijl on her first commercial voyage to Rostock where she will receive her first cement load.
With dimensions of 109,66 m x 14.99 m, M.V. Greenland is a dedicated cement carrier build for the joint venture JT cement, in which Erik Thun AB cooperates with KG Jebsen Cement from Norway.
The vessel is the first ever dry cargo ship with an LNG fueled propulsion system and LNG tanks integrated inside the hull. The unique design incorporates a pressurized LNG tank positioned in the foreship.
The vessel has a 6-cylinder Wärtsilä 34DF main engine, with Wärtsilä also supplying an enclosed Gas Valve Unit (GVU) for easier installation and additional engine room safety.
The cement cargo system consists of a fully automated cement loading and unloading system, based on fluidization of cement by means of compressed air. The cement can be loaded and unloaded fully enclosed through pipes and is thus dust-free.
To support Crowley’s LNG needs, Eagle LNG will build a natural gas liquefaction plant (LNG plant) offering a capacity of 200,000 gallons per day (87,000 gallons per day initially) in Jacksonville, FL. The state-of-the-art facility is slated to be operational by early 2017.
The decision to partner with Eagle LNG was made by Crowley in part because of the two companies’ shared commitment to the environment.
“Crowley is proud to take a leadership position in the industry’s shift to cleaner-burning, natural gas fuel solutions,” said Crowley’s John Hourihan, senior vice president and general manager, Puerto Rico services. “The partnership with Eagle LNG is an important first step in developing sustainable supply infrastructure to ensure these highly technical, environmentally friendly vessels operate to their full capability.”
“The marine sector represents a significant opportunity for LNG fueling in the U.S., and Eagle LNG is well-positioned to build the necessary infrastructure and provide the specialized logistics to facilitate this energy transformation,” said Dick Brown, CEO, Eagle LNG “It takes companies like Crowley to lead that wave of change. Eagle LNG is proud to work with such a pioneering organization.”
“This project is an important investment in our community from both economic and environmental perspectives,” said Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry. “It clearly demonstrates the leadership role our region is playing in LNG development and progression, while strengthening our commitment to leaving a smaller footprint through cleaner-burning fuel.”
The supply agreement between Eagle LNG and Crowley will provide LNG fuel for the El Conqui and Taino, which are expected to be in service in the second quarter and fourth quarter of 2017 respectively.
The Jones Act ships will replace Crowley’s towed triple-deck barge fleet, which has served the trade continuously since the early 1970s. The new ships, will offer customers fast ocean transit times, while accommodating the company’s diverse equipment selection and cargo handling flexibility.
The LNG liquefaction plant is separate from the previously announced Eagle LNG Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) export terminal located along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, which will continue to focus on export markets in the Caribbean and Atlantic Basin.
“By building these ships we enter a market niche that will enable sustainable business operation, bigger engagement of capacities and acquisition of references for the building of ships that will be in higher demand in the near future,” says Tomislav Debeljak, CEO of Brodosplit and owner of Brodosplit Shipping Company.
“DNV GL experts were involved from the design phase and worked very closely with Brodosplit to realize this project. We are very pleased with the cooperation and look forward to continuing our work together in the future,” says Ivo Siljic, Senior Lead Surveyor at DNV GL – Maritime.
With an individual deadweight of 24,000 dwt, the vessels will be over 184 meters long and 27.5 meters wide. They will have a capacity of 2,000 TEUand reach speeds of up to 18 knots.
The containerships feature two-stroke dual fuel (LNG/MGO) engines built under license from MAN by Brodosplit’s diesel engine factory, which will also build the ships’ LNG tanks.
ESL Shipping and Swedish steel company SSAB have signed a long-term frame agreement covering SSAB’s inbound raw material sea transports within the Baltic Sea and from the North Sea. The purpose of the agreement is to enable mutual, long-term gains in efficiency and to reduce overall logistics costs, while simultaneously making raw material logistics as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible. At present, the aggregated sea transport volume covered by the agreement is estimated to be 6–7 million tons annually.
The two ice-class 1A ships being built as a result of the agreement will be the first LNG-fueled large bulk carriers in the world. CO2 emissions per ton of cargo transported will be reduced by more than 50% in comparison to present vessels.
“This new agreement is a solid example of SSAB’s sustainability strategy in action,” says Per Bondemark, Chief Procurement Officer at SSAB.
“ESL Shipping’s new customer agreement running for several years will secure growing freight volumes, and the new investments to be implemented will release old vessel stock for other transport needs. Besides their environmental benefits, the cost savings provided by the new technology will also allow better profitability,” says Aki Ojanen, Chairman of the Board of ESL Shipping and CEO of its parent Aspo Group.
The two new vessels will be built at the Qingshan Shipyard of Sinotrans & CSC SBICO in China and will start operating in the Baltic
in early 2018. The total value of the investment is approximately EUR 60 million. The investment cash flow will be divided progressively between 2015 and 2018.
ESL Shipping has worked in close cooperation with Finnish designer Deltamarin on the ship design and the ships have been tailored to customer needs with special attention given to the efficiency of cargo handling and cargo hold arrangements.
Deltamarin has performed the full concept and contract design of the ships for ESL and has a contract with the shipbuilder covering basic and detail design, procurement handling and site assistance for the two vessels based on Deltamarin’s B.Delta26LNG design.
The LNG-fueled B.Delta26LNG bulk carrier is equipped with both dual-fuel main and auxiliary machinery. The ship has a type C LNG tank of approximately 400 cu.m capacity.
The B.Delta26LNG also exhibits very efficient operation in ice class conditions, far surpassing any other similar ships trading in such conditions. Extensive model tests have been performed for both open water, at SSPA in Sweden, and Ice Class 1A operations, at Aker Arctic Technology in Finland.
The vessels will be classified according to DNV GL rules.
The B.Delta26LNG has a shallow draft of max. 10 m, length overall of 160 m, breadth of 26 m and maximum capacity of 25,600 tonnes deadweight.
NOVEMBER 25, 2015 —Three partners in the Gothenburg, Sweden, headquartered Gothia Tanker alliance have ordered a series of 16,300 dwt next generation LNG fueled intermediate product/chemical tankers with LNG propulsion. Furetank Rederi
The partners in the study — LNG containment system specialist GTT, containership operator CMA CGM (and its subsidiary CMA Ships) and classification society DNV GL — say the concept that has the potential to offer a more efficient, more flexible and greener box ship design than current 20,000 TEU two-stroke diesel engine driven ultra large container vessels.
They have dubbed the vessel the “Piston Engine Room Free Efficient Containership” (PERFECt).
Essentially, the concept ship takes advantage of the flexibility of electric drive to use space previously occupied by the main to carry cargo, more than offsetting the extra volume required by the LNG fuel tanks in comparison with conventional HFO tanks.
A comprehensive analysis with the DNV GL COSSMOS tool simulated components of the power production and propulsion system to analyze the COGAS system, making it possible to get detailed data for the calculation of the overall fuel efficiency for a complete round voyage.
Using a global FEM analysis, the project partners also evaluated the impact of the changes that were made to the general arrangement.
The two 10,960 cu.m LNG fuel tanks are located below the deck house, giving the vessel enough fuel capacity for an Asia/Europe round trip.
With the gas and steam turbines integrated at deck level within the same deck house as the tanks, space normally occupied by the conventional engine room can be used to increase cargo capacity significantly.
The dissociation of electric power generation from electric propulsion allows the electric power plant to be moved away from the main propulsion system, giving a great deal of flexibility. In fact, say the partners “an engine room is not needed any more.”
The three electric main motors, which are arranged on one common shaft, can be run fully independently of each other providing increased redundancy and reliability and a high level of safety.
With gas turbine-driven power production utilizing a very clean fuel as well as electric propulsion, the ship’s machinery systems will be simplified and more robust. This approach is also expected to lead to new maintenance strategies, already common practice in aviation, that would enable shipping companies to reduce the ship’s engine crew and save costs.
The study also suggests that optimizing the power plant through minimizing the steam turbine size, reducing power capacities, condenser cooling, and using a two-stage pressure steam turbine and steam generator will increase the system’s efficiency further. The next phase of the study aims to optimize the propulsion system and ship design to attain even greater efficiency and increased cargo capacity.
THE PRICE TAG
As part of the analysis, costs for additional and reduced systems to the base case ship (CMA CGM’s 20,000 TEU Marco Polo) were considered.Additional costs included:
Costs that could be eliminated or reduced in compared to the two-stroke engine system included:
At the end, the CAPEX (capital expenditure) for the COGAS ship are seen as being to be 20% to 24% above those for a conventionally-fueled vessel.
The OPEX (operating expenditure) costs largely depend on the difference in fuel price, the additional income related to the additional containers which can be transported and the savings related to a possibly higher system efficiency.
On the basis of the current gas price in Europe, which is nearly the same as the HFO price a business case in comparison with a two stroke ship using HFO plus scrubber as a reference therefore “needs compensation either by a larger difference between gas and LNG price or by additional benefits from efficiency improvement and additional revenue from additional container slots.”
Still, the partners say that the results of the feasibility study, including the CAPEX and OPEX calculations, encourage them to plan a more detailed evaluation of the overall system in a follow-up project.
Another important milestone was marked last week, with the installation of three LNG fuel tanks in the first ship.
The double-walled, stainless steel tanks – which are 110 feet in length and 20.6 feet in diameter – weigh 225 metric tons and will hold more than enough LNG fuel for two round-trip voyages between the vessel’s future ports of call, Jacksonville, FL, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
“While we are all excitedly watching these ships take shape, we are particularly proud of the role we, as a company, are playing to bring the most modern, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly ConRo ships in the world to the Jones Act market of Puerto Rico,” said Tom Crowley, company chairman and CEO. “There are no other ships of their kind being built anywhere else in the world today, and they are being constructed right here at home – in the United States of America. Having that shipbuilding capability here is essential to our national defense and an important reason we as a country need the Jones Act to be maintained and strengthened.”
Crowley’s two Jones Act ConRo ships, which will be named El Coquí (ko-kee) and Taíno (tahy-noh), are are scheduled for delivery second and fourth quarter 2017 respectively.
“It’s very impressive to see these new state-of-the-art Commitment Class ships take shape,” said John Hourihan, senior vice president and general manager, Puerto Rico services. “Seeing those LNG tanks being placed into El Coquí really resonates with me because we are setting a new standard for environmentally responsible shipping.”
The Commitment Class ships have been designed to maximize the carriage of 53-foot, 102-inch-wide containers, which offer the most cubic cargo capacity in the trade.
The ships will be 219.5 meters long, 32.3 meters wide , have a deep draft of 10 meters, and an approximate deadweight capacity of 26,500 metric tonnes. Cargo capacity will be approximately 2,400 TEUs (20-foot-equivalent-units), with additional space for nearly 400 vehicles in an enclosed Ro/Ro garage.
Each ship will be powered by an MAN B&W 8S70ME-GI8.2 main engine and three MAN 9L28/32DF auxiliary engines, all fueled by LNG .
The ship design is provided by Wartsila Ship Design in conjunction with Crowley subsidiary Jensen Maritime.
