Teekay Teams Up with Wärtsilä on New Shuttle Tanker Design

The new shuttle tanker concept creates both economic and environmental benefits.

Vancouver-based Teekay has teamed up with the Finnish technology company Wärtsilä to develop a new shuttle tanker concept with plans to construct at least four of the dual-fuel, next-generation shuttle tankers.

The four newbuilds will be built at the Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) yard in South Korea.

Wärtsilä says the new concept will offer a new level of economic and ecological performance, and is expected to reduce annual emissions of CO2 equivalents by more than 40 percent compared to conventional shuttle tankers. In addition to operating on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as the primary fuel, the dual-fuel engines will also 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 releasing it to the atmosphere, Wärtsilä says harmful emissions will be eliminated and fuel consumption will be significantly reduced. Further, the concept will also reduce Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions from the engines’ exhaust by more than 80 percent and sulphur Oxide (SOx) emissions will be almost entirely eliminated, while particulate emissions will be reduced by more than 95 percent.

“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,” says Roger Holm, President, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.

“This new shuttle tanker design will set new standards for both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions,” adds Terje Rusdal, Project Manager at Teekay.

Not surprisingly, Wärtsilä power solutions will be at the heart of the concept design. Among the many innovative features, the vessels will be equipped a Wärtsilä Hybrid system, with which the power distribution will be based. The Hybrid system uses batteries for fuel savings, peak load shaving, and added overall system redundancy.