HJ Heavy Industries Develops Next-Generation Floating LNG Bunkering Vessel 'Floating Gas Station'

World's First 5100㎥ Dry Type Followed by 7500㎥ Class Vessel

Methanol-Powered, Ballast Water-Free, Hydrogen Ships... Accelerating Eco-Friendly Innovation

A next-generation eco-friendly LNG bunkering vessel that supplies LNG fuel directly at sea and requires no ballast water to maintain hull balance has been developed.

HJ Heavy Industries Shipbuilding Division (CEO Yu Sang-cheol) announced on the 4th that it has completed the development of a new LNG bunkering vessel hull form.

This is a step forward in securing core technologies to dominate the eco-friendly ship market.

HJ Heavy Industries recently completed the development of a 7,500㎥ LNG bunkering vessel hull form, a ship that supplies LNG fuel at sea, supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's Mid-sized Shipyard Innovation Growth Development Project.

They also added that they have obtained the Approval in Principle for the basic design from a classification society. The approving organization is Lloyd's Register (LR) of the United Kingdom, the world's largest classification society boasting over 200 years of history and prestige.

The 7,500㎥ LNG bunkering vessel developed by HJ Heavy Industries is known as a new hull form following the 5,100㎥ LNG bunkering vessel ordered from Japan's NYK in 2014. At that time, it was the first order worldwide for a general-purpose LNG bunkering vessel, making it a major topic in the industry.

LNG-powered ships usually receive fuel through onshore LNG storage tanks, but using an LNG bunkering vessel allows direct LNG fuel supply at sea without docking. For this reason, LNG bunkering vessels are called "floating gas stations."

The vessel developed by HJ Heavy Industries is equipped with two independent pressure-type LNG tanks certified by the International Maritime Organization, enabling ship-to-ship bunkering, considered the most efficient bunkering method, with a capacity of 7,500㎥ of LNG supplied at once.

It also secures maneuverability and operational efficiency through a dual-fuel (LNG/MGO Dual Fuel) propulsion system.

LNG Bunkering Ship.

In particular, HJ Heavy Industries developed this bunkering vessel as a "ballast water-free" ship that can operate without the inflow or discharge of ballast water (seawater put into tanks to maintain the ship's center of gravity) to prevent disruption of the marine ecosystem caused by ballast water.

Ballast water-free ships are considered cutting-edge vessels that are environmentally friendly as they do not require separate ballast water treatment facilities, and they also reduce construction and operating costs.

HJ Heavy Industries has built trust by accumulating next-generation eco-friendly ship technology, such as applying methanol-ready technology (ships developed to use methanol as fuel in the future) to a 5,500 TEU container ship and LNG dual-fuel technology to a 7,700 TEU container ship, both already developed.

As a result of these efforts, they achieved an order in February for two 9,000 TEU methanol-powered container ships from HMM.

The company recently embarked on technology development for hydrogen ships in collaboration with the Hydrogen Ship Technology Center at Pusan National University. Hydrogen ships are attracting attention as next-generation green ships capable of achieving carbon neutrality by emitting no carbon dioxide.

An HJ Heavy Industries official said, "With the International Maritime Organization's carbon emission regulations, the eco-friendly ship market using eco-friendly energy as the main fuel is expected to grow rapidly. We will secure a super-gap competitiveness in the market through technology development that can realize carbon zero and the construction of eco-friendly ships."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.