Seaspan’s dual-fuel LNG boxships to feature TMC eco-friendly compressors

Norway-based compressed air system supplier TMC Compressors (TMC) has secured a contract to deliver its eco-friendly marine compressed air system for the Hong Kong-based Seaspan Corporation’s containerships.

Chinese Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Company is building fifteen 7,000 TEU dual-fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG) containerships for Seaspan Corporation and has picked TMC’s marine compressed air system for the newbuilds.

Under the contract of an undisclosed value, TMC will deliver the marine compressed air system to each of the 15 vessels, including compressors for service/control air and for the SCR/EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) system.

The compressors for the SCR/EGR system will be frequency-controlled Smart Air compressors which are said to offer up to 40% energy saving compared to conventional compressors, with associated reductions in operating costs and CO2 emissions.

As explained, the speed of the electrical motor in the Smart Air system will adjust itself according to what is required to produce the exact air volume necessary to meet the actual compressed air consumption at all times. In turn, lower air consumption requires less speed on the compressor and this directly results in less power consumption.

“Conventional compressor technology, which is very much the industry norm, runs on the same speed irrespective of whether the required air volume is big or small. The result is a lot of wasted energy, and costs. Our Smart Air compressors eradicates this energy waste and reduces OPEX to a minimum”, said Hans Petter Tanum, TMC’s director of sales and business development.

Last year, Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding contracted TMC to deliver the marine compressed air system, including Smart Air compressors, to four of Seaspan’s 15,000 TEU Neo-Panamax container vessels.