LNG Under Construction by Samsung Heavy Industries

Araldite LNG adhesives from Huntsman Advanced Materials are being employed by shipyards, including Samsung Heavy Industries in the construction of a new LNG ship. The vessel is the 100th of its kind to employ Araldite adhesives and to be built for use in the global LNG industry. LNG ships are enormous ocean-going vessels that transport supplies of LNG between energy rich and power hungry countries. The global LNG market is experiencing a period of rapid growth. It is estimated that in 2006, Europe will import over 40 million tonnes of LNG to make up for short falls in domestic energy supplies.* To meet worldwide demand for the cost-effective delivery of LNG supplies, enormous industry containment ships are required to transport cooled LNG supplies thousands of miles.

Each ship has an average capacity of about 145k cubic meters (CuM) up to 264k CuM, and during construction requires in excess of 100 tonnes of specialist thixotropic industrial adhesive. These adhesives are typically used to create high performance, durable seals between the inside of LNG vessels and the internal insulation box that helps keep the gas stable at temperatures as low as -165ºc. Huntsman has been providing material engineering adhesive and mastic solutions to the LNG sector since 1992. It has approval from major shipping organisations and industry specifiers including Lloyds Register and Gaz Transport & TechniGaz (GTT). It also has a dedicated team that works in close co-operation with the world’s leading LNG containment developers, shipyards and panel fabricators.