(Project concluded on November 30, 2020)
The project proposes the conceptual studies of three vessels using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as fuel. The study started with the development of a roadmap on the possibilities of using natural gas, specifically liquefied natural gas, considering the availability of this resource in the country, analyzing the political, financial, geographical, technical and logistic conditions and constraints and on evaluating current and future environmental regulations. At the same time, new LNG technologies for ships and terminals have been evaluated, as well as infrastructure requirements for the supply, storage, bunkering and operational ones for the use of LNG as fuel. Considering the maritime transport market and environmental trends, market perspectives for the implementation of LNG were developed, including tendencies of national regulation and on the perspectives of the Brazilian maritime industry.
In the project, three conceptual vessel designs adapted to the Brazilian conditions, in different levels of detail, were proposed, i.e. an offshore supply vessel, a shuttle tanker and a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU). However, unlike the procedure proposed initially, the offshore supply vessel design focuses on the propulsion/energy system (diesel-electric system) in which, adopting a hybrid propulsion with batteries and LNG as a fuel, the objective is to develop a methodology and evaluate layout alternatives that minimize the fuel consumption and emissions for a given operational profile and including the required dimensions/shapes changes as well as parameters to transit and dynamic positioning performance. In addition, it is intended to carry out an economic evaluation considering operational and capital costs and comparison with traditional propelled vessels. Finally, with respect to the other two vessels, the scope will probably be better understood at the end of the present work.
TEAM
Gustavo Roque da Silva Assi (POLI-USP)
Project Coordinator
Kazuo Nishimoto (POLI-USP)
Julio R. Meneghini (POLI-USP)
Rodrigo Jacinto do Vale
Partners
ABS Classification Society