South Korean shipbuilding giant Samsung Heavy Industries has developed a boil-off gas recovery system for LNG-powered ships.
The shipbuilder successfully demonstrated the system named BReS on December 20 and received a statement of fact from classification society ABS.
BReS recovers BOG that naturally evaporates in the fuel tank of LNG-powered vessels which are increasing in orders due to strict environmental regulations, SHI said in a statement.
It is a new technology that can reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions from LNG-fueled vessels, the shipbuilder said.
According to SHI, existing systems require lots of time and cost because foreign manufacturers exclusively supply high-pressure compressors to convert BOG into fuel and the systems also emit carbon dioxide in the process of combusting the gas.
BReS is a heat exchange technology that uses cold heat from LNG which comes through an engine instead of a high-pressure compressor.
It can reduce investment costs by liquefying BOG and realize “zero carbon emissions” by re-liquefying excessive BOG, it said.
The shipbuilder claims that with BReS a containership operating between Europe and Asia could reduce about 30 tons of LNG fuel and 60 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per voyage.
SHI added that it had completed 15 demonstrations so far, including BReS, using its LNG pilot test facility completed in May 2021.
