High cost factors rule out use of LNG-fuelled containerships for now
HAMBURG Sud and its ship management subsidiary, Columbus Shipmanagement (CSG), say LNG fuelled engines are too costly for containerships to consider replacing traditional power sources.
This conclusion comes after studying an LNG-based containership run on a MAN Diesel & Turbo ME-GI low-speed dual-fuel engine. In the end, the concept did not stack up given the dramatic fall in oil and gas prices.
Having crunched all the numbers to factor in future trends in fuel prices and the market value of losing container slots to increased bunker volume, the study found such schemes to be uneconomic.
At today's price of US$250/tonne, "the gap between MGO and LNG [prices] is not big enough," said CSG managing director Christoph Gessner. However, he did not rule LNG out for the future. "We will have a project in the near future," he concluded.
Mr Gessner told delegates at the Large Engine Techdays conference, organised by Austrian diesel engine consultant AVL List, that the concept would fulfil its eco ambitions and that it could "offer our customers efficient environmentally conscious transport," according to London's LNG World.
Mr Gessner showed the audience a photograph of a ship in Hamburg belching black smoke into the air. "What we don't want is to be pictured like this," he said. "For that reason we evaluated whether we could avoid the complete use of fuel oil."
That would contribute towards "a very ambitious target" to reduce the shipping group's CO2 emissions per TEU-kilometre by 45 per cent by 2020 compared with 2009, he said.
The group rejected scrubbers as a solution: "We don't see it as a good option to put the emissions from the air into the water."
As a comparison for its study, Hamburg Sud took the 9,600-TEU Cap San Nicolas, one of nine similar vessels in its fleet, but one that has what Mr Gessner described as "quite a small main engine for such a size of vessel", delivering 40,000kW for a speed of 21.5 knots.
However, the vessel has about half as much installed power in auxiliary generator capacity, largely because of its 2,100 reefer connection points and transverse thrusters fore and aft. These generator engines were also to be fuelled by LNG, adding to the potential emissions savings.
HAMBURG Sud and its ship management subsidiary, Columbus Shipmanagement (CSG), say LNG fuelled engines are too costly for containerships to consider replacing traditional power sources.
This conclusion comes after studying an LNG-based containership run on a MAN Diesel & Turbo ME-GI low-speed dual-fuel engine. In the end, the concept did not stack up given the dramatic fall in oil and gas prices.
Having crunched all the numbers to factor in future trends in fuel prices and the market value of losing container slots to increased bunker volume, the study found such schemes to be uneconomic.
At today's price of US$250/tonne, "the gap between MGO and LNG [prices] is not big enough," said CSG managing director Christoph Gessner. However, he did not rule LNG out for the future. "We will have a project in the near future," he concluded.
Mr Gessner told delegates at the Large Engine Techdays conference, organised by Austrian diesel engine consultant AVL List, that the concept would fulfil its eco ambitions and that it could "offer our customers efficient environmentally conscious transport," according to London's LNG World.
Mr Gessner showed the audience a photograph of a ship in Hamburg belching black smoke into the air. "What we don't want is to be pictured like this," he said. "For that reason we evaluated whether we could avoid the complete use of fuel oil."
That would contribute towards "a very ambitious target" to reduce the shipping group's CO2 emissions per TEU-kilometre by 45 per cent by 2020 compared with 2009, he said.
The group rejected scrubbers as a solution: "We don't see it as a good option to put the emissions from the air into the water."
As a comparison for its study, Hamburg Sud took the 9,600-TEU Cap San Nicolas, one of nine similar vessels in its fleet, but one that has what Mr Gessner described as "quite a small main engine for such a size of vessel", delivering 40,000kW for a speed of 21.5 knots.
However, the vessel has about half as much installed power in auxiliary generator capacity, largely because of its 2,100 reefer connection points and transverse thrusters fore and aft. These generator engines were also to be fuelled by LNG, adding to the potential emissions savings.