With Trinity Yachts, poised ready to incorporate its expertise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) prolusion gained by Trinity Offshore its sister company into future superyachts all eyes are now on an experiment being undertaken by the commercial shipping company Tarbit.
Based in Sweden the tanker operators have taken re delivery of their ship Bit Viking after it has been converted to run on LPG instead of heavy fuel oil
Wärtsilä’s whose engines are aboard the ship have developed LNGPac, a new system, which enables safe onboard storage and use of LNG.
The ship carries two 500 cubic metre LNG storage tanks mounted on deck to facilitate bunkering operations and permit the loading of LNG at a rate of 430 cubic metres per hour.
When visiting EU ports, which have a 0.1 per cent limit on sulphur emissions, the vessel operates on gas making her ‘one of the most environmental friendly 25,000 ton product tankers in the world.’
If sea trials aboard the tanker are successful, it will provide further validation to the belief that LNG as one of the potential marine fuels of the future.
Many in the marine industry anticipate that this development will rapidly accelerate during coming few years as ports and count ire apply ever stricter anti pollution regulations.
Bit Viking has twin screw propulsion, with each screw currently powered by a 6-cylinder in-line Wärtsilä 46 engine running on heavy fuel oil (HFO). The conversion involves changing these to 6-cylinder in-line Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines that will operate on LNG. The Wärtsilä LNGPac is a total system developed by the company to enable the safe and convenient storage of the gas fuel onboard ship, and to facilitate bunkering operations.
Bit Viking was built with double engine rooms, propellers, steering gears, rudders and control systems.