Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) announced today that it has developed an independent liquefied natural gas storage tank model named the Lobe-Bundle Tank.
This new LNG storage tank won Approval in Principle from the Japanese classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) in June 2012 and while the tank is designed for 165,000 cbm LNG carriers, it can also be used in LPG carriers, LNG FPSO, LNG fueled vessels, and LNG bunkering systems.
Using ring-shaped plates instead of conventional flat plates, the weight of the tank and building costs are reduced significantly. The tank is built using spray-type insulation rather than panel-type insulation, substantially reducing construction time.
Hyundai Heavy’s LNG tank technology meets International Maritime Organization standards requiring high level of structural analysis and fatigue/fracture analysis for Type B independent LNG storage tanks. The South Korean shipbuilder plans to build pilot LNG storage tanks and acquire general approval from NK by 2013.