Project Forward’s LNG-fueled bulkers granted South Korean patent

The Project Forward initiative led by Athens-based Arista Shipping, has been granted a patent from the South Korean Intellectual Property Office Examiner.  

The patent-pending machinery arrangement consists of two low-pressure, four-stroke Wärtsilä 31Dual Fuel main engines and two PTO/PTIs, coupled on one shaft that drives a CPP propeller.

Model tests of the project’s concept vessel indicate that the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) is well below the currently most stringent Phase III level. EEDI Phase III is applicable to ships built after 2025 and signifies a 30 percent reduction from the 2008 reference level.

The IMO has also said that efforts should be made for a possible further reduction in CO2 emissions per transport work of up to 70 percent by 2050.

Project Forward shows that this 70 percent reduction in CO2 emissions target can be met, even without lowering service speeds, through the use of carbon-neutral fuels mixed with LNG. Such carbon neutral fuels can be transported, stored, and consumed in a similar way to that of fossil LNG.

The concept vessel’s hull form has been optimized in cooperation with Finnish ship designer Deltamarin and classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS).

In addition to Arista Shipping, Deltamarin, ABS and Wärtsilä, the French LNG membrane containment system designer GTT is also involved in the project.