LNG-Powered, Electric Engine, Boxship Concept Design
French LNG containment specialist GTT, along with French containerline CMA CGM (and its subsidiary CMA Ships) and classification society DNV GL have released a technical and feasibility study for a new mega boxship dubbed the Piston Engine Room Free Efficient Containership (PERFECt), which could get rid of engine rooms all together.
The concept vessel is LNG-fuelled, powered by a combined gas and steam turbine, and is electrically driven.
Exploring this novel configuration resulted in the partners identifying and analyzing a propulsion concept that has the potential to offer a more efficient, more flexible and greener box ship design than current 20,000 TEU two-stroke diesel engine driven ultra large container vessels.
“The shipping community has realized that LNG enables the implementation of new propulsion concepts such as demonstrated by the PERFECt design that can increase a vessel’s efficiency, reduce fuel consumption and therefore offer a commercially interesting solution. I am confident that the utilization of LNG as ship fuel will increase over the next few years”, says Remi Eriksen, Group President and CEO of DNV GL.
“The impulse behind this study was our interest in seeing how a modern ultra large container ship design could benefit from utilizing COGAS, which is a system for combined gas and steam turbine power generation,” adds Gerd Würsig, Business Director for LNG-fuelled ships at DNV GL – Maritime. “A modern, land-based combined cycle LNG-fuelled power plant will reach fuel-to-power efficiency ratios of up to 60 per cent, which is higher than conventional diesel engines, which can achieve up to 52 per cent. In addition, the power density by volume and weight is much higher for a COGAS system."
“CMA CGM and its subsidiary CMA Ships position themselves as pioneers by contributing to this worldwide leading innovation. This concept rethinks the ship’s design. The COGAS system with electrical propulsion gives us a great deal of freedom in the general arrangement and in tailoring the installed power to the actual operational requirements,” says Jean-Baptiste Boutillier, Technology & Information Director at CMA Ships. “The lower footprint of the machinery system and increased flexibility of the electric propulsion system means we can increase the capacity of the vessel, despite LNG tanks requiring more space than traditional fuel oil tanks, thereby generating greater revenues and reducing the payback time for the additional CAPEX required.”
