Cosco Shipyard to build newly designed LNG fuelled bulker
China's Cosco Shipyard Group will build a new 'Clean Sky' bulk carrier incorporated with an LNG-as-fuel system, an innovation jointly developed by Cosco, Golden Union and Lloyd's Register, Seatrade Asia online reports.
The 'Clean Sky' design builds in flexibility by enabling owners to choose dual, or tri-fuel engines able to burn heavy fuel oil or diesel as well as LNG.
“A 'Clean Sky' ship could be built next year. We have addressed the technology issues; the approval in principle that we issued today (Thursday) only comes after exhaustive risk investigations into the gas containment, bunkering systems and performance assessment,” said Nick Brown, Lloyd's Register's area general manager and marine manager, Greater China.
Zhan Shuming, Cosco Shipyard Group's head of engineering, commented: “Society is looking for alternatives to current fuels, which are also rising in price. The increased availability of gas reserves and the emissions of benefits are driving interest in LNG as an alternative fuel.”