UASC to Retrofit Mega-Containership Fleet with Dual Fuel Power

Photo by Rob Almeida / gCaptain.com

United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) has announced today plans to retrofit its future fleet of ultra-large (14,000 – 18,000 TEU) containerships with dual-fuel power capability. The vessels, which include five 14,000 TEU vessels with six options, and five 18,000 TEU vessels with one option, are currently under construction at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in South Korea.

UASC notes the retrofit is planned through a later LNG Fuel Gas Supply System (FGSS) retrofit after the vessels are delivered. Through a technical cooperation with Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU) and IHI Corporation (IHI), HHI intends to obtain an Approval in Principle (AiP) from UASC’s designated classification society, DNV-GL, for the FGSS and the LNG fuel tank.

This dual fuel system will be the first ever such system used on large Asia-Europe trade container vessels and will be an important litmus test for the viability of the use of LNG fuel on deep sea shipping trades for not only the containership sector, but also for the tanker sector.

HHI has teamed up with JMU, the license holder of the Self-supporting Prismatic-shape IMO type-B LNG Tank (IHI-SPB Tank) to provide the LNG tank design as well as the conceptual design for a FGSS based on HHI’s Hyundai Integrated Gas Supply System (HI-GAS).

The new ship designs, including the FGSS and the IHI-SPB Tank, are currently being finalized by HHI in cooperation with JMU and DNV-GL with deliveries scheduled between 2014 and 2016, including all options.