The future of natural gas as a fuel in marine gas turbine for LNG carriers

This paper discusses the suitability of using natural gas as a fuel for marine gas turbine electric propulsion (DFGE), utilizing natural boil-off gas and forced boil-off gas, as well as investigating its economical and environmental benefits over other propulsion options. The benchmark ship chosen for this study has a capacity of 150,000 m3 and is powered by conventional steam propulsion. For this purpose a spreadsheet model was developed to determine the liquefied natural gas carrier operating costs for different propulsion options. This is in addition to a sensitivity analysis to study the effect of varying range, heavy fuel oil (HFO) and natural gas prices on ship operating cost. Recently, about 40% of the new orders shifted to slow speed diesel engines with re-liquefaction plant and dual fuel diesel electric propulsion. To date, marine gas turbines are not used in liquefied natural gas carriers. It was found that using natural gas as a fuel with the proposed marine gas turbine cycle at current HFO and natural gas prices provides the highest cost saving for a distance less than 4000 nautical miles (NM). With the expected changes in fuel prices, the proposed cycle achieves cost saving of 3% per round trip, and this saving is directly proportional to increasing fuel prices, compared to other options.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1177/1475090212441444
• Record URL:
  http://pim.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/226/4/371
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/14750902
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd.
• Authors:
  • El-Gohary, M Morsy
• Publication Date: 2012-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 371-377
• Serial:
  • Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part M: Journal of Engineering for the Maritime Environment
  • Volume: 226
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Sage Publications, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 1475-0902
  • EISSN: 2041-3084
  • Serial URL: http://pim.sagepub.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Economic benefits; Environmental impacts; Fuel consumption; Gas turbine fuels; Gas turbines; Liquefied natural gas; Natural gas; Operating costs; Tankers
• Subject Areas: Economics; Energy; Marine Transportation; Vehicles and Equipment; I15: Environment; I96: Vehicle Operating Costs;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01483923
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 16 2013 1:52PM