Wärtsilä completes ‘Bit Viking’ conversion

The new innovation for your shi's posted by Berita Kapal, burn LNG instead of HFO fuel for your vessel.

Tarbit’s 25,000 dwt product tanker 'Bit Viking' has re-entered service following her conversion to burn LNG instead of HFO.

She was the first vessel to be converted by Wärtsilä and is also the largest worldwide to date. The work was undertaken under the watchful eye of class society GL, as she was the first LNG fuelled vessel to be classed by the Hamburg-based class society.

This conversion enables the Statoil chartered vessel qualify for lower NOX emission taxes under the Norwegian NOX fund scheme. Re-commissioned in October, she is operated by Statoil along the Norwegian coast, thus allowing her to qualify for the Norwegian NOX fund.

This fund is a co-operative effort whereby participating companies may apply for financial support in return for introducing NOX reducing measures.

This was the first marine installation to involve converting Wärtsilä 46 engines to Wärtsilä 50DF engines and the first 50DF marine installation with mechanical propulsion.

The scope of the conversion package from Wärtsilä included deck-mounted gas fuel systems, piping, two six-cylinder Wärtsilä 46 engines converted to Wärtsilä 50DF units with related control systems and all adjustments to the ship's systems necessary. The vessel's GL class certificate was also updated.

The engines are connected directly to the propeller shafts through a reduction gearbox, thus avoiding the electrical losses that are an unavoidable feature of diesel-electric configurations.

This enables a significant improvement in propulsion efficiency, reduced fuel consumption and corresponding reductions in emissions, Wärtsilä claimed.

Delivered in 2007 by China's Shanghai Edwards shipyard, the ‘Bit Viking’ was built with double engine rooms, propellers, steering gears, rudders and control systems for full redundancy.

GL said that this conversion project was a good opportunity to evaluate whether GL's own rules for gas as a ship fuel would prove up to the task.

Within the short trading period since her conversion, the ‘Bit Viking’ has already achieved considerable benefits for the environment: greenhouse gases reduced by 20% to 25%, sulphur output cut entirely, NOx gases were cut by 90% and particulate emissions reduced by 99%.

An official emissions measurement has been conducted, but the final results are not available yet, GL said.

‘Bit Viking’ resumed trading on 25th October 2011. Since then, she has successfully bunkered from a shore facility at Risavika, South of Stavanger.

She is currently trading along the Norwegian coast, from Oslo to Kirkenes, carrying Statoil cargoes

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