‘K’ LINE signs shipbuilding contracts for four LNG-fuelled car carriers

The vessels are designed for the frequent transport of small lots in European short sea shipping. They are also designed to comply with size restrictions, which some European ports for imported cars have. ‘K’ LINE is confident that these vessel specifications will give KESS a competitive advantage in its European short sea shipping operations.

The vessels are equipped with straight stern ramps with a load capacity of 60 t. This enhances KESS’s capacity to handle heavy and oversized cargo and increases its flexibility to carry a wide variety of cargo types in addition to passenger cars.

The use of LNG fuel is expected to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas (GHG), by 25% – 30% and emissions of sulfur oxides, which cause air pollution, by almost 100% compared to conventional vessels using heavy fuel oil. Additionally, the company will consider using bio-diesel and bio-LNG fuel, or liquefied biomethane, in addition to LNG fuel.

The vessels each use a high-pressure type ME-GI engine with a shaft generator, reducing emissions of methane slip (unburst gas), which is a GHG. While boil-off gas (BOG) generated from LNG tanks is generally used as fuel for generator engines on a vessel with a high-pressure main engine, these vessels are equipped with vacuum-insulated LNG tanks to reduce the generation of BOG. This enables a machinery configuration with lower methane slip emissions.

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/small-scale-lng/05062026/k-line-signs-shipbuilding-contracts-for-four-lng-fuelled-car-carriers/