Reporter Xu Miaomiao

LNG Power Ship Looks Forward to “Acceleration”

Reporter Xu Miaomiao

Recently, IMO has made a decision at the meeting in London that the sulphur content of marine fuel must be below 0.5% by 2020. The industry considers ships adopting LNG power to be one of the best solutions. So how is the development of the domestic LNG power ships?

As an important technical support unit which promotes LNG application on the water, China Classification Society (CCS) has also adopted some measures to boost the development of LNG power ship. CCS has always been committed to providing personalized and integrated solutions and technical services for the value chain of LNG on water. CCS has been doing researches on the technical standards of LNG power ship since 2006, and has formulated more than ten regulations, standards and guidelines for LNG power ship, LNG bunkering ship, liquefied gas carrier, etc. and has basically set up a horizontal standard system for LNG application covering LNG transportation, bunkering, supported by a vertical framework of regulation, guidelines and application software, being in the forefront of the world. At the same time, based on the research results and technology accumulation on the water application chain of LNG, CCS provided technical support for the economic subsidy policy of LNG bunkering ship for the Ministry of Finance, the implementation plan in emission control area for the Ministry of Transport, the ship engine emission standards for the Ministry of Environment and has carried out other important policies and standards’research and formulation, to promote the government’s decision to be more reasonable and feasible. Especially, the project of Ministry of Transport in the west “the navigation safety assessment and risk prevention measures research for LNG ship in inland water” which is undertook by CCS will provide important technicalbasis for the new supervision regulation of LNG ship in inland water.

From the point of international and domestic environment and trends, LNG power ship is developing rapidly into the “fast track”. At present, the regulation and specifications of national LNG power ship, LNG bunkering ship have been published, basically covering the value chain of LNG water application. According to the 4thChina LNG Fuel and Bunkering Conference & Exhibition (LNGFB 2016), 2017 will be the important period for national LNG water application to develop comprehensively. It can be said that LNG as the clean fuel is the trend of the time. But how to ensure the policy implementation and promote the development of LNG bunkering ship becomes the highest concern of the industry.

For this, experts have suggested to focus on the following: firstly to speed up the layout and planning for inland LNG bunkering terminal. Secondly, improve the policy environment. Thirdly, optimize organization and management. Fourthly, increase the process of demonstration. In view of the existing pilot demonstration project of LNG power ship, to optimize the management mode, strengthen the guidance, help to solve the practical diffculties, and to promote systematic transformation of demonstration achievements.