Hartmann Reederei presents ethane-fuelled, eco-friendly LEG carrier

The vessel’s superstructures will be located at the bow, resulting in optimised distribution of weight and, therefore, a reduced demand for ballast water.
This in turn leads to reduced fuel consumption and emissions. The new “Svelte” bow design enables the vessel to improve seakeeping at higher transit speeds and improved fuel efficiency, Hartmann Reederei said.
The latest generation of the MAN B&W dual-fuel two-stroke engine on diesel combustion principle will be installed on board the ships.
The 188m-long and 29m-wide ECO STAR 36K will be able to operate on HFO, MDO, gas oil, LNG, and - as a world novelty - on ethane. Furthermore, it can utilise the boil-off gas from its cargo. The vessel’s autonomous gas fuel tanks are constructed for ethane and LNG and enable an operating range of about 10,000 nautical miles. Additionally, the design encompasses heavy fuel tanks for the same distance. If necessary, it is possible to switch over from gas to diesel operation and vice versa immediately.
The propulsion efficiency will be further improved by adopting a MAN Kappel propeller with rudder bulb system and a twist-flow rudder developed by HB Hunte Engineering.
The gas plant, which was jointly developed and realised by Hartmann Reederei and HB Hunte Engineering, will be located in a sheltered place behind the superstructure. Its components will be provided by AC-INOX.
ECO STAR 36K also adopts a new tank design developed by Hartmann Reederei: the “Star-Trilobe“-tank. It consists of three cylinders combined into one. Due to better room utilisation of the cargo holds, this results in higher efficiency and allows an increase in cargo capacity by nearly 30% at the same ship dimensions.
The new vessels offer a cargo capacity of 36,000m3 each for liquefied gas cargoes up to -104°C.
In cooperation with the Norwegian shipowning company Ocean Yield, three vessels of this type have already been ordered at the Chinese shipyard Sinopacific. Their delivery is scheduled from the second half of 2016 onwards.
For the first three vessels, a long-term agreement has been secured by Hartmann Group company GasChem Services with Saudi Arabian petrochemical company SABIC.