Schulte Group unveils new LNG bunker vessel design
German shipping firm Schulte Group unveiled its next-generation design for an LNG bunker vessel (LBV) at Gastech Exhibition and Conference in Milan, it said on September 7.
The vessel design does away with the need for fenders and spacer pontoons, which take time and manpower to manually deploy, replacing them with an integrated outrigging system that’s compatible with any vessel type and can be operational in five minutes, the company said.
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It also features warming-up, gas freeing and aeration equipment to prepare LNG-fuelled vessels for drydock, and flexible design options so that the LBV can be tailored to specific requirements.
The company said all of these components are geared towards reducing the capital and operating costs for owners and operators.
“The number of LNG-fuelled vessels planned to enter into operation in the next few years is significant as operators increasingly turn to LNG to reduce environmentally and climate harmful emissions,” Johan Lillieskold, gas solutions specialist, LNG competence centre, at Schulte Group said during his conference presentation at Gastech.
“The current arrangements for LNG bunkers, both land based and sea based, will not be sufficient or suitable for the increasing volume of LNG-fuelled tonnage planned for future years. This new flexible vessel design will serve both today’s tonnage and future newbuilds,” he added.
The LBV has been developed in accordance with the International Code for Safety for Ships Using Gases or other Low-Flashpoint Fuels (IGC) Code and other IMO regulations. It also complies with and is prepared for new and future decarbonising rules and regulations like IMO’s Carbon Intensity Index (CII) and EU’s Fit-For-55 programmes.
The company said that measures are either built into the design or available for future upgrade with, for example, a battery hybrid solution or retrofitted for hydrogen power.