The Northern Europe Service Gets Its Second LNG Fuelled Feeder Ship

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  • Hamburg-based Containerships takes up delivery of 1,380-TEU, LNG-fuelled Containerships Polar, for service between Northern Europe, the Baltic states and Russia.
  • Containerships Polar, one of the 4 LNG fuelled feeder ships to enter the Balt 2 service.
  • First LNG bunkering expected by the end of June, approximately 200 tonnes of ship-to-ship transfer will be done.
  • Polar designed with fuel gas handling room rather than the conventional tank connection space.
  • TGE supplied three vertical Type C foam-insulated gas tanks and hull is optimised with computational fluid dynamics and tank testing.
  • CMA CGM will have 20 LNG-fuelled container ships in its fleet by 2022,  including nine 22,000-TEU vessels.

According to an article published in LNG World shipping, Hamburg-based Containerships a subsidiary of the shipping giant CMA CGM Group, has taken delivery of 1,380-TEU, LNG-fuelled Containerships Polar, which will join its sister vessel Containerships Nord in a weekly service between northern Europe, the Baltic states and Russia.

Balt 2 service 

Containerships Polar is built by China’s Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard, and is one of four LNG-fuelled feeder ships that will be phased into the Balt 2 service. 

The Balt 2 service serves the ports of Teesport, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Riga and Gdynia. Rotterdam is the transhipment hub and LNG bunkering port for Containerships Polar and Containerships Nord.

Vessel design 

Each vessel has an average measure of 170 m in length, a beam of 27 m, with a capacity of 1,400 TEU, holding up to 639 units of 45-foot containers.

Containerships Polar is expected to carry out its first LNG bunkering by the end of June. A ship-to-ship transfer of approximately 200 tonnes of will be done. 

How is the design different?

Containerships Polar was designed with fuel gas handling room rather than the conventional tank connection space, with fabrication and welding completed on board during the construction by the shipyard.

In addition, the Containerships’ vessels contain a power-takeoff shaft generator with a Wärtsilä controllable pitch propeller to supply the ship’s power while the main engine is running.

The shaft generator is fitted at the output side of a low-speed WinGD dual-fuel 7RT-Flex50DF main engine, with an MCR of 10,080 kW at 124 rpm. 

Generation of alternate power 

As a result of this arrangement, the Wärtsilä PTO shaft generator can produce supplementary electrical power for onboard use whenever the main engine is driving the propulsion shafting. 

The overall fuel consumption and operating costs are reduced with the minimized use of auxiliary engine. Wärtsilä also supplied the six-cylinder in-line Wärtsilä 20DF dual-fuel four-stroke auxiliary engine.

Germany-based TGE Marine 

TGE Marine, a German – based Gas Engineering company, supplied three vertical Type C foam-insulated gas tanks and the low-pressure fuel gas supply system for the two-stroke main engine and four-stroke dual-fuel auxiliary engine.

The hull was optimised with computational fluid dynamics and tank testing. Further energy-efficient measures include a Becker Marine full spade twisted rudder with a rudder bulb.

Containerships Arctic and Containerships Aurora

Containerships is planning to take in the delivery of sister vessels Containerships Arctic and Containerships Aurora from Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard by this year end. 

CMA CGM will have 20 LNG-fuelled container ships in its fleet by 2022,  including nine 22,000-TEU vessels.

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Source: LNGWorldShipping