Numéro : 2776 - Year : 2022
LNG conversion and jumboisation applied to very large container vessels
Ludovic GERARD1, Thibault VINET2 - ALWENA SHIPPING – (1) CEO, (2) Project Manager – Marseille
Jean-Benoît BENSOUSSAN - GTT – Business Development Manager – Paris
In order to meet the ever more stringent requirements from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), shipowners will have to find solutions to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions of their ships, in particular their CO2 emissions.
One solution considered is to convert part of the existing fleet to LNG propulsion. This type of operation is timely and costly this is why GTT, a technological expert in membrane containment systems, Alwena Shipping, a naval consultancy and engineering firm, and COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Zhoushan) Co., Ltd (CHI Zhoushan) shipyard, have decided to develop an alternative solution: conversion to LNG combined with a lengthening of the vessel, also called “Jumboisation”.
The length increase of the ship (or jumboisation), combined with the LNG conversion of the propulsion and electrical generation systems enables a reduction in the operating costs of the ship, which limits the financial impact of the immobilization period required for the retrofit operation.
LNG propulsion offers ship-owners a solution to comply with the environmental regulations being adopted by the IMO by 2045. In comparison with a conventional fuel-powered container ship, the converted vessel reduces CO2 emissions by around 23% over an 83-day Europe-Asia return trip (port calls included).
The work carried out within the Joint Development Program (JDP) between GTT, Alwena Shipping and CHI Zhoushan supports the technical, operational and commercial design of the conversion and jumboization operation, while also proposing a competitive industrial plan.
The result of this joint work shows the way to contribute to decarbonize part of the container ship fleet currently in operation. Assurance of reliability of their study, GTT, Alwena Shipping and CHI Zhoushan have received an Approval in Principle (AiP) from the classification society Bureau Veritas (BV).
This paper is written in English
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