South Korea’s DSME develops new LNG containment system

South Korea’s shipbuilding giant Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) said it has developed a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo containment system.

According to DSME, this new cargo containment system has the lowest boil off rate (BOR) when compared to the existing LNG cargo containment systems.

The new system named ‘SOLIDUS’ has been granted a design approval by the UK classification society Lloyds Register, the shipbuilder said in a statement.

The design can be applied to all types of LNG carriers and LNG cargo tanks.

SOLIDUS is a next-generation membrane type cargo containment system, which maximizes the safety of the containment system by using the state of the art technologies and adopting two metal barriers, the statement reads.

DSME said it applied an eco-friendly and high-performance insulation material that has been developed in cooperation with the German chemical company, BASF.

This high-performance insulation material “dramatically lowers” the daily LNG boil off rate from 0.07% to 0.05%, according to DSME.

DSME estimates that companies can save about 500 million won ($0.45m) a year using the system on a 170,000-cbm carrier.

The shipbuilder added it will hold a launching ceremony of the new containment system for ship-owners and other industry partners on December 15.