Schiffstechnik | Ship
Schiffstechnik | Ship Technology The garage is located on the aft upper deck The automation system for the LNG technology In the garage the trailers are parked, up to three of them at a time. Each of them is connected via a hose to the LNG system. As the garage is located three decks above the engine room, it is just piping going down a few meters. »The process is very simple and the connection fully automated. You cannot start or disconnect the trailer before all the safety steps are completed,« Henrique Pestana, Chief Design Offcer (CDO) at FSG, tells HANSA exclusively. Virtually, the trailers are the LNG tanks for the vessel, like usual fuel tanks. »So in this case you have no LNG tanks, it is stored in the trailers, from there fed to the LNG systems and from there to the main engines and auxiliary systems to be burnt. As simple as that,« Pestana adds. In General, SeaRoad is not the first shipowner thinking about storing LNG tanks on deck (but the only one with specific trailer system). Others have this idea, too. All of them face the problem that the tanks need space and that this space has to be deducted from the cargo space. Arabian container shipping company UASC for example expects a loss of up to 700 container slots when its youngest newbuildings, designed as »LNG ready«, will be switched to the new technology (HANSA 08/2015). However, the extent of this loss is dependent on the LNG capacity. In SeaRoad’s case, the sailing route is quite short, so the vessel does not need much capacity. The trailer system has a range of 600 nm at 20 kn. »That’s why this vessel can operate with only three trailers and still has some margins on the autonomoy. On other routes you would lose much more cargo,« the FSG designer says. While designing the whole bunkering system, FSG and SeaRoad managed to develop a smart combination of safety, operational flexibility and simplicity, leading to a system quite easy to use for crews. The garage is a relatively normal one, from the outside you wouldn’t see a difference to common garages. But inside it has a lot of safety features, anti-explosion equipment or CCTV. »At the end of the day it is just a garage with a rolling up door with some cryogenic piping and features«, Pestana says. It is located above the uppermost deck in a protected area quite close to the cargo – leading to the fact that the trailers can only be loaded when the vessel is empty or half empty, depending on where cargo is stowed or parked respectively. The vessel is dual fuel designed, so it can run on MGO as well, if and when the owner decides to. According to the owner, this will happen in only 1% of the time the vessel is sailing. One example for the use of diesel might be a breakdown of other systems. Another one could be maintenance voyages. Road regulation & uncharted waters Pestana emphasizes the good cooperation with the Australian client, who brought a clear idea. »The client always knew that he wanted LNG. Normally every innovation is driven by the shipowner. The role of the yard and designer is to be prepared and keen to foster this innovation and translate that into something in practise, in terms of what that could mean in reality and in technology and engineering. That’s where I see our role in this project.« Although a huge part of the design was delivered by FSG and its own design department, the final version was the result of working together. »There was a starting point. They had their own idea about the layout of the vessel, but from that starting point to what we have delivered in reality is in many aspects quite different, significantly different«, the CDO adds. Even the idea of the trailer system emerged from the exchange between both partners, he says. »It was an intensive brainstorming. There were a lot of stumbling blocks identified immediately and some at a later stage.« For »Searoad Mersey II«, the equipment designed needs to be used on board, outside on the road and on industrial installations, where the trailer is loaded – »which you are not used to when designing ships only.« According A model of the connection of LNG tanks and engine room... ...and of the garage for the trailers and tanks Photos: FSG 52 HANSA International Maritime Journal – 154. Jahrgang – 2017 – Nr. 2
Schiffstechnik | Ship Technology Trucks deliver the LNG tank trailers One of the cargo areas on board the newbuilding to Pestana, this caused some headaches but the problem could be solved, not least with the assistance of DNV GL, who classified the vessel. »There were actually no road traffc rules that ruled out sea traffic rules, but compliance with both regulations required doubling up of some functions like tank valve arrangements and tank level measurement,« says Linda Sigrid Hammer, Principal Engineer for LNG, Cargo Handling & Piping Systems at DNV GL. For safety reasons, FSG needed to simulate all steps of the bunkering procedure in detail in order not to miss anything, together with designers of the system, in that case the Linde subsidiary Cryo AB (later taken over by engine manufacturer MAN). The experts were very experienced with gas and gas installations. Pestana adds: »But of course they come from a different road, they come from industrial gas installations and although the technology is the same, when you work in a different environment, you need to rethink, to test your limit and your knowledge, trying to use the existing understanding of using that fuel, but in another setup. These aspects were more complex to all stakeholders than the engineering of the system itself. »Not to blame the rules and regulation, because they are there for a purpose, but it is also with this kind of technology, that you sometimes test and need to change the rules, or you come to the conclusion that these rules are not suitable for this new technology. And of course those that go to the process are the ones that have to take the burden to get that verification.« There was a point when the involved people, working in uncharted waters, said: ok, we cannot comply with both rules. But eventually a solution was found. FSG and SeaRoad together with the regulators came to the conclusion by doing risk analysis that there was © Chris Gee FUTURE TECHNOLOGY We congratulate FSG and SeaRoad Tasmania on the “ship of the year “ and look forward to further trendsetting projects. Learn more at www.dnvgl.com/maritime HANSA International Maritime Journal – 154. Jahrgang – 2017 – Nr. 2 53
