A new shuttle tanker concept has been developed by the world’s largest provider of shuttle tanker services Teekay, in close cooperation with Finnish equipment provider Wärtsilä.
The concept has been endorsed with orders for four of these next generation vessels for Teekay. The ships will be built at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in South Korea.
Wärtsilä claims the new design will reduce annual emissions of CO2 equivalents by more than 40%, compared to conventional shuttle tankers. In addition to operating on LNG as the primary fuel, the dual-fuel engines will be able to run on a mixture of LNG and recovered volatile organic compounds (VOC) – the gas evaporating from the oil cargo tanks during loading.
By utilising the recovered VOC as fuel rather than venting it to the atmosphere, the harmful emissions will be eliminated and the ships’ bunker needs will be significantly reduced. The concept also claims that nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from the engines’ exhaust will be reduced by more than 80%, sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions will be almost entirely eliminated, while particulate emissions will be reduced by more than 95%.
“Together with Teekay, we have developed a concept that takes the shuttle tanker sector into a new era, and which is further evidence of Wärtsilä’s ability to transform shipping by developing and utilising the very latest technologies. These ships will have tremendous operational flexibility with unmatched manoeuvring capability, and will achieve what all operators are striving for today, namely optimal economic and environmental performance,” said Roger Holm, president, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.
“This new shuttle tanker design will set new standards for both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions,” added Terje Rusdal, project manager at Teekay.
The Wärtsilä Hybrid system for power distribution will also be incorporated in the ships. The Hybrid system uses batteries for fuel savings, peak load shaving, and added overall system redundancy.
