Knutsen NYK Offshore Tanker’s two shuttle tankers on order at Daewoo in South Korea will feature a Wärtsilä LNG fuel system which will incorporate liquefied volatile organic compounds for use in the main engine and auxiliaries
Wärtsilä will provide its volatile organic compounds (VOC) recovery system, together with an LNG fuel gas supply system for two new 124,000-dwt shuttle tankers. The ships have been ordered by Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers (KNOT), a leading independent owner and operator of shuttle tankers, and will be built at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine yard in South Korea. The order with Wärtsilä was placed in April 2020.
With this technology, the liquefied VOC is mixed with LNG and used as fuel for the main and auxiliary engines. By using LNG as the primary fuel and supplementing this with the energy recovered from the VOC, these vessels will be able to lower their emissions of CO2 equivalents by 30 to 35%, a minimum of 30,000 tonnes per year, compared to conventional oil-fuelled shuttle tankers. These savings are roughly the equivalent of the total emissions from approximately 20,000 cars.
Wärtsilä Marine general manager of sales Hans Jakob Buvarp said, “Wärtsilä has developed its VOC abatement technology over the past 20 years, and our competence in this field is unmatched in the marine sector. It means these vessels, with the combination of Wärtsilä’s VOC recovery and LNG fuel systems, will not only be extremely sustainable environmentally, but will also be commercially attractive. The VOCs that would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere can instead be burned as fuel.”
“Our industry is rapidly changing towards greater environmental awareness and improved operational efficiency. These two new ships will reflect this change, thanks largely to Wärtsilä’s advanced technology. They will truly represent the new generation of shuttle tankers, with vastly reduced emissions and lower fuel costs,” said Knutsen OAS newbuilding director Jarle Østenstad.
The Wärtsilä solutions will be delivered to the yard in November this year. When delivered, the tankers will operate in the North Sea oil fields.
This is the second application of Wärtsilä’s VOC recovery system. The combined design work of Wärtsilä and Teekay Offshore on Aurora Spirit – the first of a series of innovative hybrid shuttle tankers – secured the Emissions Reduction Award for Wärtsilä and Teekay. The Teekay shuttle tankers were subject to US$180M in financing and subsidies from Norwegian sources.
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