Wärtsilä, LNG fuel solutions provider to the marine industry, has been awarded a contract covering four newbuild tanker vessels powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The IMO Tier III compliant vessels will be commercially managed by Furetank Chartering on behalf of three separate owners in the Gothia Tanker Alliance. The contracts were signed in the second quarter of 2016.
The ships are to be built at the Avic Dingheng shipyard in China for Furetank (2 vessels), Älvtank, and Thun Tankers, a fully owned subsidiary of Thunbolagen.
Each vessel will be fitted with a 9-cylinder Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel main engine, two Wärtsilä Auxpac 20 auxiliary engines, the gas valve unit and a host of other specialised Wärtsilä-designed equipment. Delivery of the Wärtsilä systems is scheduled to commence in spring 2017.
In order to achieve optimal propulsion efficiency for these vessels, Wärtsilä utilized its OPTI Design methodology. This uses extremely accurate information via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis to calculate the performance of the propeller, nozzle and rudder, including their interaction with the vessel’s hull, thereby enabling a design that gives a perfect match between the various propulsion elements.
“These environmentally friendly tankers will run mainly on LNG fuel. No other company can match Wärtsilä’s experience and reference list in LNG solutions, and we are very confident that the Wärtsilä technology and broad range of solutions are the right choice,” says Lars Höglund, Managing Director of Furetank.
The vessels will be built to a design developed by Swedish ship designer FKAB together with Furetank. They feature a special focus on minimising the impact on the environment, with a close to 50 % reduction in CO2 emissions over similar class vessels built between 2002 and 2012.
(Source: Wärtsilä)
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