Industry needs structural regimes for LNG operation

According to DNV GL, the industry is in need of structural regimes for LNG operation.

This was revealed at the industry conference ‘LNG – Full speed ahead’, hosted by Hamburg’s trade authority and a number of German and Dutch LNG organisations and platforms. The conference addressed the opportunities and challenges that both Germany and Holland face in developing LNG as a shipping fuel.

The following experts took part in a panel discussion at the LNG conference in Hamburg: (from the right) Jan Tellkamp, Principal Consultant Project Management at DNV GL, Achim Wehrmann, Director of Shipping at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Georg Ehrmann, Managing Director of the German Maritime LNG Platform, Daniela Rosca, who heads the Unit for Clean Transport and Sustainable Urban Mobility, DG Mobility and Transport at the European Commission, Ger van Tongeren from the LNG Platform in the Netherlands as well as Dr Bernhard Brons, Director of the Corporation AG Ems and Patrick Cnubben from the Dutch LNG Platform.

LNG’s potential

At a panel discussion during the conference, Alfred Hartmann, President of the German Shipowners Association, explained: “LNG has great potential. And we know from LNG operations on gas tankers that it is extremely safe to use, both in ships and in bunkering facilities. But what the industry needed, was a level playing field.

Jan Tellkamp, Principal Consultant Project Management at DNV GL, added: “At the moment, there are still several challenges, one of them is that authorities need to establish a legal framework and structural regimes for LNG operation.”

EU directive

By 2016, all EU member states will have to specify which maritime and inland ports are to provide access to LNG refuelling points. This comes as a result of a directive for the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure, which requires member states to provide a minimum infrastructure for alternative fuels, as well as common EU-wide standards for equipment needed and user information.

“There is full flexibility: refuelling points for LNG could include LNG terminals, tanks, mobile containers, bunker vessels and barges, on-shore or off-shore, amongst other things. Neighbouring countries could join forces and present joint-solutions in order to ensure the coverage of the trans-European core transport network”, explained Daniela Rosca, Head of the Unit for Clean Transport and Sustainable Urban Mobility, DG Mobility and Transport at the European Commission.

Retrofits and newbuilds

Dr Bernhard Brons, Director of the Corporation AG Ems, commented: “Two of our 17 vessels will be running on LNG by the summer, one of them is a retrofit and one of them a newbuild. DNV GL was a very reliable partner in this project and we are convinced we are on the right path. Currently we want to wait and see how LNG operation works in practise, before we consider retrofitting on any more of our vessels.”

Brons also called for more common standards: “As a shipowner you want to have an engine that has a type-certification, this has not been realised for all engine parts on board yet.”

Booming industry

Despite challenges, the uptake of LNG as a fuel for shipping is booming. Tellkamp concluded: “At the moment we have 134 confirmed LNG-projects identified. That is more ten more than in January and significantly more than just a year ago - an exponential growth. So it’s not a question of if LNG will be widely introduced as ship fuel, but when.”

Adapted from press release by Katie Woodward

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/small-scale-lng/30032015/dnv-gl-on-lng-as-shipping-fuel-506/