Crowley Maritime Corporation’s liner services group reached another important milestone last week. Three double-walled, stainless steel tanks were installed in the liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered, combination container – Roll-On/Roll-Off ( ConRo ) ships. The tanks are 110 feet in length and 20.6 feet in diameter – weigh 225 metric tons and will hold more than enough LNG fuel for two round-trip voyages between the vessel’s future ports of call, Jacksonville, Fla., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
It is the most modern, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly ConRo ships in the world. The ship design is provided by Wartsila Ship Design in conjunction with Crowley subsidiary Jensen Maritime, a leading Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering firm.
There are no other ships of their kind being built anywhere else in the world today. They are being constructed right here at home – in the United States of America. Having that shipbuilding capability here is essential to the national defense and to maintain and strengthen the Jones Act, a federal statute that provides for the promotion and maintenance of a strong American merchant marine. It requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-flag ships constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents.
Crowley’s two Jones Act ships under construction at VT Halter Marine, Inc., a subsidiary of VT Systems, Inc. will be named El Coquí (ko-kee) and Taíno (tahy-noh) and are scheduled for delivery in the second and fourth quarter 2017 respectively.
These new state-of-the-art Commitment Class ships are setting a new standard for environmentally responsible shipping. These ships have been designed to maximize the carriage of 53-foot, 102-inch-wide containers, which offer the most cubic cargo capacity in the trade. The ships will be 219.5 meters long, 32.3 meters wide (beam), have a deep draft of 10 meters and an approximate deadweight capacity of 26,500 metric tonnes. Cargo capacity will be approximately 2,400 TEUs (20-foot-equivalent-units), with additional space for nearly 400 vehicles in an enclosed Ro/Ro garage. The main propulsion and auxiliary engines will be fueled by LNG with the following advantages:
- It is a stable gas that is neither toxic nor corrosive.
- Is lighter than air.
- It is the cleanest fossil fuel available, netting a 100-percent reduction in sulphur oxide (SOx).
- A100-percent reduction in and particulate matter (PM).
- A 92-percent reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx).
- It also has the ability to significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2), a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, as compared with conventional fossil fuels.
Crowley’s overall EcoStewardship© positioning and growth strategy includes LNG vessel design and construction management; transportation; product sales and distribution and full-scale, project management solutions.
Source: Crowley Maritime Corporation
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