MAN Energy Solutions’s after-sales division, MAN PrimeServ, has announced the signing of a contract to retrofit two LPG carriers for Tianjin Southwest Maritime Ltd. – the Chinese liquefied-gas carrier operator, according to the company's release.
The COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Guangdong) yard will host the respective conversions of the individual MAN B&W 6G60ME-C engines aboard the ‘Gas Gemini’ and ‘Gas Aquarius’ to dual-fuel MAN B&W 6G60ME-LGIP units capable of running on LPG. The two vessels will be retrofitted in parallel, beginning May 30th 2023.
PrimeServ will jointly carry out the work with CMS (CSSC Marine Service Co. Ltd.), the after-sales subsidiary of CSSC Marine Power Group.
The contract signing comes in the wake of Oslo-listed BW LPG – the world's leading owner and operator of LPG vessels – announcing in June 2022 that it, under MAN PrimeServ’s supervision, had converted the main engine of the ‘BW Malacca’ to dual-fuel running. The last such conversion for a series of 15 LPG carriers, all work was carried out at Yiu Lian Dockyards in Shenzhen, evidence of China’s ability to successfully execute such retrofits.
Cost-wise, LPG is a better option than compliant fuel-oil, with high lifetime-savings prospects. By leveraging LPG as a marine fuel, vessels benefit from savings due to lower fuel consumption and full dual-fuel flexibility, which guards against price sensitivity to post-2020 fuel-price fluctuations. Furthermore, the ability to use LPG cargo as a supplemental fuel source also reduces time and fees for fuel bunkering.
Harnessing LPG propulsion also translates into cleaner, more efficient engines that are cheaper to maintain. In addition, the fuel flexibility of dual-fuel engines ensures full redundancy for uninterrupted operations.
Compared to 2020-compliant fuels, using LPG as a fuel would reduce: SOx by 99%, CO2 by 15%, NOx by 10%, and particulate matter by 90%.