Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. delivered the LNG carrier Grace Dahlia (Kawasaki hull no. 1665) to Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) on September 30.
This is the second 177,000 m3 LNG carrier to be delivered by Kawasaki, and is the world’s largest Moss-type LNG carrier currently in operation. The significant increase in LNG carrying capacity that this vessel offers was made possible by expanding the size of the cargo tanks. Kawasaki has made sure the ship-shore compatibility and outstanding propulsion performance of its existing vessels are not affected by this upgrade.
To power this vessel, Kawasaki has chosen the Kawasaki Advanced Reheat Turbine Plant (Kawasaki URA Plant), which it developed specially for LNG carriers. This plant is based on a reheat cycle where the steam used in the high-pressure turbine is reheated back in the boiler, and then sent on to drive the medium-pressure turbine. This cycle, combined with a high-pressure, high-temperature boiler, achieves a dramatic increase in thermal efficiency. As a result, fuel consumption is improved by approximately 15% compared to conventional steam turbine plants.
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Kawasaki Heavy Industries, October 3, 2013