Using LNG as a fuel can offer a practical and economic solution for the ship operator. Operating a ship using a fuel in a gas state requires integration of the entire chain from ship side bunkering, storage, conditioning and delivery to the engine and its conversion into power. Within a period of a few weeks, builders of dual fuel engines Wärtsilä and MAN have published their own solutions to this question. Both systems allow the ship owner to deliver/complete dual fuel with LNG propulsion system from one manufacturer and have the reassurance that the entire system is compatible including bunkering and on board storage.
The widening of the exhaust control and sulfur emission control areas in European and American waters requires new solutions to enable vessels to comply with these requirements. Although use of MDO as a fuel is one way towards compliance, another possible and less expensive alternative is LNG.
Using LNG as a fuel can offer a practical and economic solution for the ship operator. The prognosis is that we will see the growing use of LNG on board ships as a fuel for propulsion and auxiliary engines however this inevitably raises another question of how best to store this new type of fuel?
Operating a ship using a fuel in a gas state requires integration of the entire chain from ship side bunkering, storage, conditioning and delivery to the engine and its conversion into power. Within a period of a few weeks, builders of dual fuel engines Wärtsilä and MAN have published their own solutions to this question.
In the case of MAN Diesel & Turbo, it has teamed with the German company TGE Marine which has been active in the design and construction of cargo handling systems for ship carrying the liquefied cryogenic gases of LNG, LPG and petrochemical gases. In addition to the matter of gas storage the company also produces a Fuel Gas Station to manage the storage of gas on board and condition the fuel for supply to the engine. A suitable bunker interface harmonizing with the available infrastructure can be provided if required.
Wärtsilä offer their own in-house solution called LNGPac and consists of a full system like the one above from bunkering to storage, conditioning and delivery to the engine. There is a series of standard storage tanks ranging from the smallest LNGPac105 to the LNGPac 527, the number refers to the geometric volume of the tank in cubic meters.
Both systems allow the ship owner to deliver/complete dual fuel with LNG propulsion system from one manufacturer and have the reassurance that the entire system is compatible including bunkering and on board storage.
This should help to accelerate the acceptance on LNG as a marine fuel.