INTRODUCTION

LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) carriers range in size from small carriers of about 10 000m3 up to 150
000m3 with larger ships of up to 230 000m3 in the design stage.

The liquified gas is carried at atmospheric pressure at a temperature of -161°C. Although the tanks are well
insulated, some of the gas, which comprises mainly of methane, will boil off. This is known in the industry as
N-BOG or Natural Boil Off Gas. Although the amount of N-BOG will vary, it is usually accepted as being
between 0.1% and 0.15% of the cargo per day.

If a 74 000m3 vessel is considered, then the boil off per day would be 74m3. Because the expansion rate from
liquid to gas is about 600:1, this equates to 44 400m3 of gas at atmospheric pressure. The Lower Calorific
Value of the gas will vary according to the amount of nitrogen that is present in the BOG, which can be up to
30% at the start of a voyage because it has a lower boiling point than methane, but a ball park figure of
28MJ/m3 will be used for the calculation.

44 400 × 28 = 1 243 200MJ of energy per day. To allow this gas to vent to atmosphere is not permitted. This
leaves three options:
1. The gas can be burnt off.
2. The gas can be reliquified and returned to the tanks. (reliquefaction)
3. The gas can be used as a fuel in the propulsion plant.
Option 1. is not energy efficient and is only used in an emergency, or if more gas than can be used in option 3
is being produced.

Option 2 is an option but the initial investment is high and the fuel consumption will increase because of the
power requirements of the plant.

Option 3 is the one generally used. Up until recently all LNG vessels were powered by steam turbines,
because the main boilers could be adapted fairly easily to burn the boil off gas and could be changed between
HFO and gas without difficulty. Of course special precautions in the piping of the gas into the engine room
have to be observed.

A steam turbine plant is not very efficient: about 29% for main propulsion and about 25% for electrical
generation.

Four stroke diesel engines which can burn gas or diesel fuel (known as Duel Fuel or DF engines) have been
around in shore based installations for some time. These engines are now being adapted for use in merchant
vessels, notably LNG carriers, although some gasfield supply vessels have been built with dual fuel engines.
MAN B&W have developed a two stroke engine which will run on gas.

The efficiency of the diesel engine in the dual fuel concept approaches 50%. When installed as part of the
diesel electric propulsion plant (for economic, practical and redundancy purposes) the efficiency overall is
about 43% due to losses in alternators, transformers, converters, motors and shafting. However the efficiency
far exceeds that of the steam turbine plant.
The principle of the plant is outlined above. The gas boil off is pressurised to about 5.5 bar by compressors
and is then heated to about 30°C. The gas is then piped to the engines, where it is injected into the intake air
before the air enters the cylinders. Ignition is by pilot injection of diesel fuel.

The first diesel electric LNG carrier is the Gaz de France at 74 000 m3 She is powered by 4 Wartsila 6L50DF
engines each developing 5700kW at 514rpm. Under normal operation she runs 3 out of the 4 engines giving a
service speed of 16 knots, although with all 4 engines running she can achieve 28.5 knots.

The energy consumption of the engines when burning gas is quoted as the Brake Specific Energy
Consumption (BSEC) and for the Wartsila 50DF engine it is given as 7410kJ/kWh (about 48.5%
efficiency). This means that each engine will consume 1 013 688MJ of energy in 24 hours. This means that
at the lower boil off figure of 0.1%/day given above, there is only enough gas to meet the requirements for 1
engine. To meet the need to run all the engines, some of the cargo is forced to boil off (F-BOG) This is more
economical than running the engines on diesel fuel. On ballast passage the engines can either be run on diesel
fuel or LNG retained on board specifically for burning in the engines. It is possible to modify the engines to
burn heavy fuel oil by adjustments to the fuel pump timing and fuel injection equipment, although the use of
heavy fuel will require a change in the type of lubricating oil to a High Duty oil.

FUEL SYSTEM

Diesel Supply
There are two fuel supply systems: one for pilot fuel when the engine is running on gas, the other for back up
operation on diesel fuel. The pilot fuel is supplied at 900 bar from a common rail supplied by an engine
driven variable delivery radial piston type pump. The timing and duration of the pilot injection is
electronically controlled.

For operation on diesel fuel, standard type cam driven fuel injection pumps are used injecting through
standard design spring loaded fuel injectors.

The injectors are twin needle valve units. The smaller needle is used for the electronically controlled pilot
injection, and the larger needle for when running on diesel fuel.

Gas Supply
The photos opposite and below shows th
gas regulating unit.
In the foreground of the picture opposite
the manual Isolating valve (with the red
handle)

No 1 is the filter
No 2 is the flow meter
No 3 is the gas regulator unit
No 4 are the shut off valves
No 5 is a venting valve (1 of 3)
 Gas Regulating Unit

The gas supply is filtered and then goes through a pressure regulator, the output of which is dependent on
engine load and energy content of the gas, but is a maximum of 4 bar. The system also incorporates necessary
shut of and venting valves for safety purposes. The gas is then piped to the engine by a large diameter double
wall common rail system with each cylinder having an individual feed to a gas admission valve.

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

The engine runs on the lean burn principle. This means that the air to fuel ratio is high (about 2.1:1). An
advantage is that the engine will produce low NOx emissions (<1g/kWh) because the heat energy released
by the burning fuel is use to heat this extra air, limiting combustion temperatures. It is important that the air
fuel ratio is kept within a relatively small window: Too rich (below 1.9:1) and knocking will occur; too weak
(above2.2:1 and there is a danger of misfiring.

The engine is started using diesel fuel using both pilot and main injection. When combustion is stable, the
engine is changed to gas supply. This takes about one minute, during which the fuel oil is gradually
substituted by gas.
 As the piston approaches TDC a
On the inlet stroke gas is admitted The mixture will not ignite on small amount of diesel (1%) is
through the gas admission valve and compression because the gas has a injected through the pilot nozzle
mixes with the inlet air. high self ignition temperature. Ignition of this pilot fuel then igni
the gas air mixture.

Maintaining the correct air fuel ratio over the operating

range of the engine is essential to prevent knocking and
misfiring and to keep emissions low.
View of Engine Showing Waste Gate
This is achieved by an engine controlled waste gate which
by-passes some of the exhaust gas around the
turbocharger.
SAFETY

In case the boil off gas cannot be used by the engines, and there is no
reliquefaction plant, there must be an alternative way of disposing of it.
To do this a Gas Combustion Unit or Thermal Oxidiser is installed in
the ships funnel.
View of V12 engine showing gas manifold and emergency gas venting valve actuator
The safety considerations are similar to those for an LNG steamship. A leak of methane into the machinery
space could cause a devastating explosion. To prevent this, the gas is led through a double skinned pipe fitted
with a flame arrestor at the inlet to the supply manifold, an extraction system and gas detector. There must be
sufficient flexibility in the pipes to prevent fatigue failure due to oscilliation of the engine. An extraction fan
from a hood above the engine is also fitted with a gas detection system. Leakage of gas will trip the gas
master valve (the engine will automatically change over to diesel operation) and the BOG will be diverted to
and burnt in the Thermal Oxidiser. The gas pipe system will also be fitted with a nitrogen inerting system
which will operate to purge through if gas is detected.

IACS require that the following safety requirements must be met:

 Only oil fuel is to be used when starting the engine.
 Only oil fuel is, in principle, to be used when the operation of an engine is unstable, and/or
during manoeuvring and port operations.
 In case of shut-off of the gas fuel supply, the engines are to be capable of continuous
operation by oil fuel only.
 Crankcase relief valves are to be fitted in way of each crankthrow. The construction and
operating pressure of the relief valves are to be determined considering explosions due to
gas leaks.
 Explosion relief valves or other appropriate protection system against explosion are to be
provided in the exhaust, scavenge and air inlet manifolds.
 The exhaust gas pipes from Dual Fuel engines are not to be connected to the exhaust pipes
of other engines or systems.
 Starting air branch pipes to each cylinder are to be provided with effective flame arresters.
 Flame arresters are to be provided at the inlet to the gas supply manifold for the engine.
Arrangements are to be made so that the gas supply to the engine can be shut-off manually
from the starting platform or any other control position.
If a trunk piston type engine is used as as Dual Fuel engine, the crankcase is to be protected
by the following measures:
 Ventilation is to be provided to prevent the accumulation of leaked gas, the outlet for which
is to be led to a safe location in the open through flame arrester.
 Gas detecting or equivalent equipment. (It is recommended that means for automatic
injection of inert gas are to be provided).
 Oil mist detector.
The engine must be designed to stop before the gas concentration detected by the gas detectors specified
reaches 60% of lower flammable limit.

If a cross-head type engine is used as a Dual Fuel engine:

 The crankcase is to be protected by oil mist detector or bearing temperature detector.
 Gas detecting or equivalent equipment is to be provided for piston underside space of cross-
head type engine.
The engine must be designed to stop before the gas concentration detected by the gas detectors specified
reaches 60% of lower flammable limit.
INTRODUCTION

With the two stroke engine the gas cannot be mixed with the inlet air as it would turn the scavenge space into
an enormous bomb!
There are two possible methods of introducing the gas into the cylinder:
The first method introduces low pressure gas through a gas admission valve in the cylinder head when the
exhaust valve has closed and pressure in the cylinder is low. The gas is compressed and mixed with the air
and ignited by pilot injection of fuel oil.

1. The exhaust valve is closed and the gas 3. At just before TDC a pilot injector inje
2. The gas admission valve is closed and
admission valve is open. Gas at a higher a small amount of fuel oil into the cylind
the piston moves up the cylinder
pressure than cylinder pressure flows into which starts to burn and ignites the gas/
compressing the gas/air mixture.
the cylinder mixture.

4. The piston is forced down the cylinder by

the burning expanding gas.
 5. The exhaust valve opens followed by the
scavenge ports. Air enters the cylinder
pushing out the exhaust gas.

The disadvantage of this system although simple, is that combustion is subject to knock and the efficiency is
low

The second method is to compress the gas to a high pressure (250 - 300 bar) and inject it into the cylinder
through special gas injectors at the same time as the fuel oil. This is the method which has been developed by
MAN B&W in their ME GI engine which is basically the electronic camshaftless engine fitted with the extra
equipment to inject the gas into the engine. The engine is fitted with gas injection valves in addition to the
fuel valves and because it is computer controlled can burn any ratio of gas and fuel with a preset minimum
amount of fuel.

INJECTION CONTROL

The injection control system is modified from the standard electronic engine as shown.
The gas is pressurised by reciprocating compressors to 250 - 300 bar. It is then cooled and led to the valve
blocks on each cylinder. Each valve block incorporates an accumulator which has a volume corresponding to
about 20 times the amount of gas injected at full load operation. The purpose of the accumulator is to
minimise any pressure drop during gas injection, and to monitor that small pressure drop as it forms an
important part of the engines safety system.

The engine can run in various modes depending on circumstances.

1. Normal dual fuel whereby the pilot fuel injected is about 6% of the load. If the gas supply is
limited, then extra fuel oil will be injected to maintain power.
2. If a limited, but constant gas supply is available, the engine can be run in what is known as
“specified gas mode”. When in this mode, the same amount of gas is injected each time,
with the amount of fuel oil varying, depending on engine load.
3. Fuel only mode, for manoeuvring or when no gas is available.
The gas supply pipes are double walled with an air seal being supplied between the two pipes. Pressurised air,
supplied by fans is then monitored for gas leakage. Because a failure of the inner gas pipe, could lead to very
low temperatures as the high pressure gas expands as it leaks out, the outer pipes are made of a stainless steel
able to withstand these low temperatures. The flow of air through the air seal is also monitored. Lack of flow
would lead to shut down of the gas supply and purging of the lines with inert gas.

To prevent leakage of gas at the injectors and to lubricate the moving parts, the gas injectors are supplied
with sealing oil which is pressurised to 25 - 50 bar above the gas injection pressure. The small amount of oil
which leaks through to the gas is then burnt in the engine. Consumption is low (about 0.13g/kWh). The
sealing oil system comprises of two pumps for redundancy purposes and a spring loaded accumulator to
maintain the pressure if a pump fails, whilst the standby pump comes up to pressure.

Should a gas injector jam open then a pressure drop will occur in the accumulator in the valve block and the
system will shut down, and the gas lines will be purged with inert gas. Should the pressure drop not be
detected, the excess gas entering the cylinder will continue to burn as it leaves leading to a high exhaust
temperature on that cylinder, leading to slow down, again shutting off the gas supply. In the unlikely event of
late ignition of the gas occurring in the exhaust manifold, leading to a rapid pressure rise, the receiver is
designed to withstand a pressure of 15 bar.

Any failure of injection of pilot fuel leading to non combustion of the injected gas will lead to the gas supply
being shut off and the gas lines purged with inert gas.

IACS require that the following safety requirements must be met:

 Only oil fuel is to be used when starting the engine.
 Only oil fuel is, in principle, to be used when the operation of an engine is unstable, and/or
during manoeuvring and port operations.
 In case of shut-off of the gas fuel supply, the engines are to be capable of continuous
operation by oil fuel only.
 Crankcase relief valves are to be fitted in way of each crankthrow. The construction and
operating pressure of the relief valves are to be determined considering explosions due to
gas leaks.
 Explosion relief valves or other appropriate protection system against explosion are to be
provided in the exhaust, scavenge and air inlet manifolds.
 The exhaust gas pipes from Dual Fuel engines are not to be connected to the exhaust pipes
of other engines or systems.
  Starting air branch pipes to each cylinder are to be provided with effective flame arresters.
 Flame arresters are to be provided at the inlet to the gas supply manifold for the engine.
Arrangements are to be made so that the gas supply to the engine can be shut-off manually
from the starting platform or any other control position.
If a cross-head type engine is used as a Dual Fuel engine:
 The crankcase is to be protected by oil mist detector or bearing temperature detector.
 Gas detecting or equivalent equipment is to be provided for piston underside space of cross-
head type engine.
The engine must be designed to stop before the gas concentration detected by the gas detectors specified
reaches 60% of lower flammable limit.