Germany to see launch of country’s first new ship with an LNG engine in May

Reederei Cassen Eils shipping company, owned by AG EMS, and the Bomin Linde LNG fuel company, a joint venture of Linde AG and Mabanaft GmbH, have signed an agreement which will lead to the launching by May of the first new LNG-powered ship in Germany, according to a press release by Mabanaft.

“We will carry out a study to record our experiences with this pilot project and use this to develop recommendations,” said Claus Hirsch, AG EMS technical inspector. The end goal is to establish LNG as fuel for shipping in Germany.

The ship, built at a cost of 30 million euros, will operate in the North Sea and get fuel from an LNG storage facility to be built in Hamburg which will also serve as a base for delivering LNG to other ports, the statement said.

The need to store the LNG at a temperature of minus 163 degrees Celsius to keep the fuel liquid will make this planned storage facility more complex than existing conventional bunkering fuel deposits, the statement added.

The liquefied natural gas to be supplied by Bomin Linde LNG will replace the more than 1.2 million litres of marine diesel that would be used as fuel by a comparable conventional ship every year, the statement said.

“The strategy of Bomin LInde LNG is to cover the complete LNG value chain, from sourcing and transport through storage and distribution to bunkering ships with LNG at strategically important ports,” Mabanaft said in the press release distributed in December.