HRS, Chinese University of Harbin Cooperate on LNG as Ship Fuel

As part of the “Bilateral S & T Cooperation between China and Greece, 2012-2014”, it has been approved by the General Secretariat of Research and Technology of the Greek Ministry of Development and the Department of International Relations of the Ministry of Science & Technology of China, the Research Project LNG-COMSHIP concerning the use of LNG as an alternative propulsion fuel to the existing merchant ships.

It is worth noting that even though an agreement between the two countries is in force since 1979, this is the first time that a Transnational Cooperation Program for Research & Technology takes place in such a high financial scale and with such a specific desired result: production, that is, of innovative products and services aimed to be promoted to European and International Market. Among 80 jointly submitted proposals, the 15 projects that raised the highest scores have been approved for funding. The proposal which was submitted by HRS,the Technological Institute of Athens and the Engineering University of Harbin, received the second highest score!

The Greek research team is composed by HRS, who is also the coordinator of the project, the Department of t Naval Architecture of the Technological Institute of Athens and the naval design office E. Petichaki. The Chinese research group consists of the Engineering University of Harbin and the shipping company China International Marine Containers Ltd. The total project budget amounts to 1,200,000 Euros, 60% of which corresponds to the Greek Research Group. This is an action funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and is part of the Operational Program Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship (RE II) and the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF 2007 -2013).

The LNG as an alternative fuel type used for the of propulsion of merchant ships, can result both to a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, NOx, SOx, PM) and to a reduction of the operating costs of the vessel as well, due to the fairly lower price of the natural gas .Consequently, it is expected to dominate in the near future, due to rising of fuel prices, the strict legislation for the reduction of energy indicators on board (EEDI, EEOI) and for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and finally due to the discovery and extraction of new gas fields worldwide. The Greek research team will focus on passenger and car ferries while the Chinese group will focus on container ships.

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LNG World News Staff, November 23, 2012; Image: APLNG