Use of Natural Gas As Fuel For Ships Available to Purchase

Eidesvik is a shipping company. We took the initiative, developed and put into operation the world's first gas powered cargo ship, the Viking Energy in April 2003. In this paper we will give the background for why we started this development. At that time the infrastructure for LNG supply had not been established and rules and regulations with the Norwegian Maritime Directorate and the Det Norske Veritas classification were at an early stage of development. These challenges will be commented along with ship and machinery concept development were risk analysis were extensively applied. Availability of suitable equipment such as engines for gas operation and LNG storage tank with control equipment will be discussed. The challenge of selling the concept to the market has been changing as the public focus recently has turned more towards environmental and resource issues. We established education courses and training of personnel. We have now more than four years of operational experience with the Viking Energy and this experience has been valuable when planning the next generation gas powered ships, to be delivered late 2007 and autumn 2008. The cost picture will be described with capex and opex. We developed a compensation equation describing the economic model for the concept in a market situation. The environmental effect will be discussed with reduction of emissions of NOx, sax, CO2 and particles. Figures for fuel consumption and emissions will be given along with effect on Eidesvik' fleet total emissions from operations within the Norwegian sector. Contribution to cleaner air in ports. Different concept options for application of gas power will be discussed, such as dual-fuel engines, single fuel gas engines, fuel cells and hybrid concepts. Development of the LNG supply infrastructure as well as development/spreading of applications of gas power in the market.