Y por fin lo presentan

Hace ya tiempo que Samsung andaba anunciando el diseño de un nuevo sistema de almacenaje para los tanques de los LNG. Al final lo acaba de presentar en una conferencia celebrada1 en Londres la semana pasada...

Samsung Heavy Industries has lifted the curtain on a new containment system that it claims will reduce LNG carrier operating costs and provide cargo flexibility

The South Korean shipyard group introduced the so-called Smart Containment system Advanced, or SCA, at a London meeting with LNG players including shipowners and developers of floating production projects.

Samsung officials touted the event as the first new containment system launch in a quarter of a century. The membrane-based system has yet to find a customer but yard sources said shipowners are considering it for LNG carrier orders currently under discussion. Some market players raised questions about the SCA's similarities to GTT's Mark III-type membrane system, which is used in many vessels built at the yard.

One LNG shipbroker noted vessel owners will likely be reticent to adopt a new technology, suggesting they may prefer GTT's system because of the French company's offer of service over the life of a vessel.

Samsung said SCA can also be used for floating LNG production vessels, as well as floating storage and regasification units. At the unveiling, it said the system responds to yard customers' main concern about LNG containment systems, i.e. boil-off, which drives up operating costs particularly as trade routes have grown longer.

SCA has a boil-off rate of 0.12% per day on a 155,000-cbm LNG carrier compared with 0.15% for some existing systems. That could save $700,000 per year in operating costs for a vessel run at 17 knots. When combined with the Anti BOG (boil-off gas), Anti-Slosh blanket system that should be fully tested by the end of the year, boil-off will drop to 0.1%, Samsung claimed. Savings then increase to $1 million per year.

GTT has said it has achieved the same boil-off rate with its Mark-III Flex system. The SCA's so-called vibration isolating layer also reduces filling restrictions to 15% of tank height, providing cargo flexibility. "If it is used together with ABAS then we can achieve any filling," a yard source said.
Fuente: LNG UNLIMITED

Sospechosas las muchas similitudes con el MARK III de GTT, a ver si les va a pasar lo mismo que a su división de móviles y el tema del GALAXY y el Iphone...