Elliott Bay Design Group (EBDG) has announced that its partner, Moran Towing Corp., has been granted US Patent 8,967,174 for ‘Articulated conduit systems and uses thereof for fuel gas transfer between a tug and barge.’
The patent was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office in May 2014. In general terms, it describes arrangements and methods for transferring boil-off gas (BOG) between an LNG barge and its tug, while taking into account the relative motion between the two vessels.
Curt Leffers, PE, EBDG Project Manager, said: "This design represents an advance in natural gas fuel transfer technology and demonstrates EBDG's and Moran's commitment to the emerging maritime LNG transport industry […] It also brings to realisation the concept of using natural gas as fuel between a tug and a barge."
The development of the system was the result of approximately one year of collaborative effort by teams from both EBDG and Moran.
Edited from press release by Callum O'Reilly