LNG-fuelled shipping goes large scale

摘要

Tightening environmental regulations and limits set on worldwide shipping emissions have increased the attractiveness of gas as a marine fuel,and LNG has emerged as the principal alternative fuel option being adopted today.Up to now,the use of LNG as fuel has been limited to small and mid-size ships,and it was originally adopted by LNG carriers.With a few exceptions,for larger vessels,only 'LNG ready' ships have been developed,such as for tankers,large container carriers and very large ore carriers.The main reasons being the uncertainty of the availability of LNG supply infrastructure,ensuring affordable LNG supply compared to other fuels,as well as extra CAPEX for dual-fuel(DF) propulsion and auxiliaries.However,on the large container carrier market,the constantly moving economic and environmental pressure forces owners to innovate in order to comply and maintain profitability.With that in mind,CMA CGM.one of the world's largest container liner operators,has adopted a disruptive innovation by the use of LNG as fuel for its largest newbuild container ships.This breakthrough project is crucial for the entire industry as it will demonstrate that compliance with stringent environmental constraints and increased economic advantages are possible.The project includes nine LNG-fuelled ultra large container vessels(ULCVs),each with a capacity of 22 000 TEU.to be built in Shanghai at the CSSC Hudong Zhonghua(HZ) and Jiangnan(JN) shipyards,featuring GTTs Mark II! containment system.The supply chain also includes a 18 600 m~3 LNG bunker ship to deliver 0.5 million tpy of LNG fuel.