Tasmanian Ship Builder a World Leader

World leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered cat
meets all proposed International Maritime emissions standards

How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world

By FRED PEARCE

Award-winning science writer Fred Pearce – environmental consultant to New Scientist and author of Confessions Of An Eco Sinner – reveals that the super-ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump out killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use. 
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Bunker fuel is also thick with sulphur. IMO rules allow ships to burn fuel containing up to 4.5 per cent sulphur. That is 4,500 times more than is allowed in car fuel in the European Union. The sulphur comes out of ship funnels as tiny particles, and it is these that get deep into lungs.

Thanks to the IMO’s rules, the largest ships can each emit as much as 5,000 tonnes of sulphur in a year – the same as 50 million typical cars, each emitting an average of 100 grams of sulphur a year.

With an estimated 800 million cars driving around the planet, that means 16 super-ships can emit as much sulphur as the world fleet of cars.

Gas powered cat - Finishing touches on Incat vessel

Annah Yard, ABC, 7pm TV News TAS


The Tasmanian ship builder Incat is nearing the completion of what it claims is the world's first high speed car ferry powered by liquefied natural gas [LNG]. 

Over 200 people have been working on "Hull 69" for the past two years.

The 99-metre catamaran has been bought by an Argentinian company.

The $100 million vessel is capable of transporting 1,000 passengers and 200 cars.

Incat's Craig Clifford says it is the seventh ferry the company has sold to South America.

"The customer wants to make this his flagship so no expense has been spared to make this the best high-speed vessel in the world," he said.

Baltic LNG bunkering to set global benchmark

Author: Mike Corkhill who is a technical journalist and consultant specialising in oil, gas and chemical transport, including tanker shipping and chemical logistics. A qualified Naval Architect, he has written books on LNG, LPG, chemical and product tankers and is currently the Editor of both LNG World Shipping and LPG World Shipping.

The agreement in late June by seven Baltic ports to promote the development of an [liquefied natural gas] LNG bunkering infrastructure in the region marks a further important step in ensuring a future global role for natural gas as a clean-burning marine fuel.

The combination of liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering and the burning of natural gas in ship engines has been put forward as one of three possible ways of complying with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) tightening regime governing the control of harmful pollutants in ship exhaust emissions. The other two options are the continued use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in tandem with exhaust gas scrubbers and the burning of low-sulphur marine gas oil (MGO)/marine diesel oil (MDO) in ship propulsion systems.

The shipping industry acknowledges that the LNG option will be chosen by many ship owners, but the extent of this take-up remains the big question. Although the burning of natural gas in marine engines meets all existing and proposed emissions standards, the provision of LNG bunkering infrastructure in ports and special shipboard fuelling systems poses logistics and cost challenges.

See the related post Road Freight Transport Costs

This includes a discussion on measures in Australia to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling network for road transport - cutting emissions and fuel costs for road freight and increasing fuel security as Australian reliance on imported oil is set to increase.