Wilhelmsen Technical Solutions (WTS) and offshore oil and gas engineering specialist NLI Solutions (NLI) have in cooperation received Approval in Principal (AiP) on their LNG fuel tank design from the Norwegian class society Det Norske Veritas (DNV).
The two companies have since 2009 worked on the development of a LNG fueltank design. The tank is designed as an IMO-B tank. In short this is a prismatic, atmospheric and self-supporting LNG steel tank with state of the art cryogenic insulation. Parts of the tank system are patent pending.
The two partners have complementary competences:
The first stage of the LNG Fuel Tank development project was co-financed by the Norwegian Research Councils MAROFF program, and Wilhelmsen Marine Consultants, Liquiline, DNV and Marintek participated as partners in the development.
The NLI LNG tank design is well suited for different applications like ship LNG bunker tanks, tanks for LNG bunker vessels,small LNG carriers and small to medium sized tanks on land.
This first AiP from DNV is valid for the tank system used as LNG bunker tanks.
The two partners are now planning to further develop the tank concept and in the future promote the tank design towards the marine industry and the Small Scale LNG distribution industry. The shift from oilbased to LNG based propulsion is regarded to be as significant as the shift from coal to oil in its time – but with LNG the environmental benefits are huge, and still there will be a significant financial benefit for the ship-owners as gas prices are expected to have a very positive development over time compared with the different oil products.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, June 03, 2013; Image: NLI