Bremen’s SAACKE GmbH has been commissioned to produce and deliver gas combustion units (GCU) for six LNG tankers. The customer is Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., one of the largest shipyards worldwide, and the later common ship owners are China Shipping LNG Investment Co., Ltd., SINOPEC and MOL.
Delivery of the GCUs with a system capacity of 5.2 tons of gas per hour is to occur in 2014. The first ship will be completed at the end of 2015. Gas combustion units enable the safe sea transport of liquefied natural gas by handling the excess boil-off gas completely and with maximum availability.
This is already the second ship series in which Hudong-Zhonghua has had recourse to SAACKE’s know-how, but the first order in which GCUs will achieve 100 per cent of their performance under free flow conditions.
Andreas von Minden, Sales Manager Offshore Applications at SAACKE explains: “ Normally, excess boil-off gas is supplied to the consumers via a compressor and at three to four bar pressure. Gas no longer needed for the ship’s engines is burned off via the GCU. But there is a great risk of compressor failure and of safety risks arising due to increasing tank pressure .” In SAACKE’s 100 per cent free flow solution, the boil-off gas is completely burned without using a compressor and already at a pressure of 0.15 bar – much lower and as a result safer than in other systems. “ This was also the main reason the client decided on our gas combustion unit ”, according to von Minden.
Compact design and increased system availability
The GCU combines a low emission swirl burner of the SAACKE SSB series with an air-cooled steel combustion chamber. All of the components have been so compactly designed that the 12 meter high, 36-ton system can be accommodated in the area of the funnel and saves valuable construction space in the ship. The pre- and post-combustion chambers will be manufactured in Bremen. The outer casing will be produced at the Chinese SAACKE location. The SAACKE GCU has some additional features which increase the availability of the system. Even when the sea is rough, there is no contact between the flame and combustion chamber walls and the inner parts are rain sealed also during heavy rain.
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LNG World News Staff, July 12, 2013; Image: SAACKE