World's first River-Sea Transport LNG Refueling Carrier Comes into Effect

He Baoxin

CSN correspondent learned from CSSC Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding that a river-sea transport 14,000 m3 LNG filling carrier construction contract customized for Anhui Yangtze River LNG Co by Hudong Zhonghua has recently come into effect.

This demonstrates that the world's first and China's first made new ship type will officially shift from the design blueprint to the real ship construction, and will become a demonstration equipment for China's shipbuilding industry to build “gas carriers in the Yangtze River” and implement the “double-carbon” strategy.

Independently developed by Hudong Zhonghua, the ship has fully independent intellectual property rights, able to realize the dual functions of one-stop LNG transport and filling directly between the river and the sea.

With an overall length of 130 m, a molded breadth of 23.6 m and a molded depth of 15 m, the ship is classed with China Classification Society (CCS). Based on the requirements of the height limit of the Yangtze River Bridge and the draft of the Yangtze River, as well as the considerations of economy and efficiency, the ship has a special design for the ship structure, combining LNG filling and transport into one, and providing LNG filling, LNG fuel tank inerting, cooling, purging and tank heating among whole-process specialized services.

The ship adopts the shallow draft form, which not only meets the design requirements of ocean unlimited navigation area, but also realizes the seaworthiness of the Yangtze River shallow water course, suitable for unlimited navigation area, able to pass the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge throughout the year, and reach the Wuhan section of the Yangtze River, realizing the river-sea onestop LNG filling transport, dubbed as “Yangtze River customized” LNG filling carrier.

The ship will adopt the Type B cabin enclosure system independently developed by Hudong Zhonghua and with independent intellectual property rights, which is also the first engineering application of the system on domestic LNG carriers. The system has the technical characteristics of high tank volume utilization rate, strong anti-swaying capability, no liquid level loading limit and safety and reliability.

It is worth mentioning that, as a demonstration project for domestic LNG core equipment, the ship has for the first time realized the first application of key equipment such as high and low load compressor, reliquefaction device, LNG submersible liquid pump, ship to ship conveying system, LNG cryogenic valves and other key equipment, and the localization rate is not less than 80%.

Meanwhile, the ship will also use a dual-fuel-powered fullrotary propulsion system to realize the flexible manipulation on narrow inland waterways, and have an enhanced intelligent integrated automation system of “intelligent platform + intelligent navigation + intelligent energy efficiency”.

As the main artery of China's inland river shipping, the annual freight volume of the Yangtze River reaches 3 billion tons, accounting for more than 60% of China's total inland river shipping. However, ships operating along the Yangtze River have long used diesel oil and heavy oil as main fuel, and their combined pollutant emissions are 70% higher than those using LNG. It is imperative to accelerate the oil-gas shift of Yangtze River ships and implement the strategy of “gas carriers in the Yangtze River”.

According to the relevant plan, by 2035, the seven LNG receiving terminals along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River trunk line will have a total capacity of 13 million tons per year, requiring at least 80 small LNG ships with a carrying capacity of more than 6,000 m3.

The effectiveness of the ship construction contract and the future completion and delivery of the ship will have an important demonstration and guiding effect on opening up the LNG sea into the river, creating a specimen and model of the “gas carriers in the Yangtze River” project, and promoting the green development of the Yangtze River shipping.

At this point, Hudong Zhonghua has become one of the world's large (174,000 m3), medium (80,000 m3) and small (14,000 m3) series shipbuilding companies, covering ocean and inland LNG carrier R&D, design and construction capacities, will not only further consolidate the important position of Hudong Zhonghua in the global LNG shipbuilding market, but also lay a solid foundation for China's shipbuilding industry comprehensively improving LNG high-end equipment industry chain and supply chain.

We learn that the ship is scheduled to go into operation in August 2024. At that time, the LNG water transport of the Yangtze River main line will run from Shanghai to Wuhu, Anhui province, thus implementing the strategy of “gas carriers in the Yangtze River”.