Emissions Scrubber Tech for Exmar LPG Carriers
Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, Korea, is building a pair of new LPG carriers for Exmar, which is a Belgian energy logistics company with an existing LPG fleet of around 30 vessels.
The two new 38,000-cu. m. LPG carriers will be built at Hanjin’s Subic Shipyard in the Philippines and delivered to EXMAR in Q1 and Q2 of 2016. The pair is significant in that they will feature innovative emissions scrubbing technology from Alfa Laval, in response to global demand to significantly reduce emissions from ships.
The Alfa Laval PureSOx scrubber systems for exhaust gas cleaning will be delivered to the Subic Shipyard in December 2014 and March 2015. The systems will be configured as hybrids, able to operate in an open loop with seawater or in a closed loop with circulation water. Each multiple-inlet system will serve a two-stroke Doosan MDT 6S59ME-B 9.3 main engine and three Doosan MAN 8L23/30H Mk2 auxiliary engines.
Newbuild vs. Retrofi
“The purchase order for a newbuild – unlike that of a retrofit – includes yard-specific demands that must be taken into account,” said René Diks, Manager Marketing & Sales, Exhaust Gas Cleaning at Alfa Laval. “As the scrubber supplier, we must be well prepared to clarify and motivate any technical deviations between our system and the shipyard’s own thinking.”
Once the scrubber is chosen, a newbuild also places greater emphasis on the speed and accuracy of the supplier’s internal processes, said Diks. “The time constraints are tougher, because the customer and the yard must approve the whole vessel design and not just that of the scrubber. Both parties must accept the technical documents before the project can move forward, and this means we must deliver high-quality documentation within a very short timeframe.”
Retrofit documentation, by contrast, can be prepared during a longer period after contract signing and is seldom subject to the same formal approval process.