Per Christian Johnsrud, Tunable, Norway, describes multi-gas analyser technologies and how improved gas data could benefit the operation of LNG vessels.
T
he maritime industry is currently striving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many shipowners are making investments to update their fleets by enabling vessels to run on reduced carbon fuels like LNG. There is a clear drive to improve fuel efficiency and thereby reduce both costs and the environmental footprints of operating vessels. The integration of live data of the fuel quality consumed by the engine will support these initiatives. By combining multi-gas analyser technologies with a digitalisation algorithm and data analytics, shipowners can obtain valuable information that can improve the operation of their vessels. Going forward with this insight will be of increasing importance.
Potential for improved efficiency by access to gas data For LNG powered engines, the quality of boil-off gas (BOG) changes over time as a vessel consumes the LNG in the tank. In addition, the combination of forced and natural BOG further adds rapid changes to the gas mixture injected into the engine. This is negative with respect to fuel economy, as the variations in fuel quality forces the crew to run the vessel engines at a worst-case fuel mix scenario to minimise the risk for knocking. In such a scenario, they could potentially have to operate three engines at a low load instead of only two engines at a higher load per engine. With access to real-time multi-gas data it is possible to tune two engines to run at higher loads which saves fuel. On top of that, operating fewer engines at
25
