Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU) and IHI Corporation (IHI) agreed on the joint development of LNG fuel tank and supply system for LNG fueled container vessels for United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) headquartered in Dubai, UAE.
These vessels are the UASC’s current newbuilding order of five 14,000 TEU vessels with six options and five 18,000 TEU vessels with one option made to the Korean shipbuilding company, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI).
The Self-supporting Prismatic-shape IMO type-B LNG tank system (IHI-SPB Tank) developed and owned by JMU and IHI has been selected as the LNG fuel tank by UASC, and JMU will perform engineering for IHI-SPB tank and IHI will study the constructability of IHI-SPB tank. The Approval in Principle (AIP) from UASC’s designated classification society, DNV-GL, will be obtained for IHI-SPB tank and Fuel Gas Supply System (FGSS) to be developed by HHI for AIP.
The retrofit of the IHI-SPB Tank and FGSS will be performed once the infrastructure is in place to enable LNG supplies in major ports of call for these container vessels, however, these vessels will be designed to be constructed in such a way that IHI-SPB Tank and the FGSS can be installed with minimum work volume and period. These are the first large Asia-Europe trade container vessels in the world to plan LNG fuel.
IHI-SPB Tank has been originally developed as the cargo containment system for the large-scale carriers and/or floating production facility of LNG. Other than such use, IHI-SPB Tank is also quite efficient system for LNG fuel tank as IHI-SPB Tank can be designed in any shape and capacity to fit the hull form and complicated hold space as required. Due to this advantageous feature of IHI-SPB Tank, the number of LNG fuel tank and the relevant equipment can be minimized, and this contributes to minimize the cargo loss, the capital investment and operational cost. These features of IHI-SPB aluminum tank in terms of cost effectiveness as well as its reliability and robustness have been highly assessed by UASC.
In order to meet both of the following requirements, saving fuel cost and consideration for environmental issues, it is supposed that the number of LNG fueled vessels will be increased. JMU and IHI will contribute to the development of LNG fueled vessels with its unique technology, “IHI-SPB Tank”.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, December 13, 2013; Image: IHI