GE gas turbine applied to next-generation LNG carrier, eco-friendly and safe- No additional emission reduction equipment required, $20M saving per ship
- Container ship as next target, continued technology development for competitive solution
July 7, 2015 — Hyundai Heavy Industries and GE Marine, have successfully developed a design for a gas turbine powered, eco-friendly LNG carrier.
HHI announced receipt of Approval in Principle (AiP) for the gas turbine powered LNG carrier 170, 000-cubic meters from Lloyd’s Register, United Kingdom.
GE Marine, based Ohio, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of marine propulsion systems, products and services, including aeroderivative gas turbines ranging from 4.5 MW to 52 MW.
These ships will mark the first time that a new version of GE’s improved gas turbine COGES system (Combined Gas turbine, Electric & Steam) is applied to an LNG carrier. The optimized system configuration yields both performance improvement and cost reduction at the ship level, meeting the industry trends for “eco-friendly”, “efficiency” and “safety”. Gas turbine powered LNG carriers will require no additional emission reduction equipment to meet IMO Tier III requirements, saving CAPEX and OPEX with emission reduction equipment. The saving benefits when calculated for 170K CBM LNG carrier is about 20B won ($20M).
Weight reduction with a gas turbine system is about 60% lower compared to diesel engines, which increase the ship efficiency translating to the reduction of ship operating costs. Other costs including lube oil, and pilot burning fuel will be eliminated.
Another great advantage is the safety. Lately LNG has been used as marine fuel and the risk of gas leakage during operation is seen as a risk to safe ship operations. But GE aeroderivative gas turbines have 70, 000, 000 operating hours on gas fuel in power generation, oil & gas (including offshore), industrial, and fast-ferry ships with high reliability and low noise/vibration performance equivalent to passenger ships.
According to Brien Bolsinger, Vice President, Marine Operations, GE Marine, “Our teams have worked well together to push this technology forward and finalize the design. Now, with AiP in hand, we can jointly approach the market and customers can feel confident in procuring a gas turbine-powered LNG carrier.”
Mr. Shin, Executive Vice President, HHI said, “The gas turbine powered LNG carriers is the culmination of HHI, the world’s best shipbuilding technology and GE, a world leader in gas turbine technology, and we will continue to develop the technology also for mega container ships and actively pursue for the competitive edge.”
“Jo”
