Leading evolution

As the world leader in providing gas engine technology, Caterpillar Marine has made a strong commitment to support the growing demand for lngfuelled solutions in the global marine industry.

With the Cat® G3516, Caterpillar has developed a spark-ignited, gas engine specially designed to operate in commercial vessel applications. The gas-fuelled units will be capable of providing up to 7.75 MW of electric power. “The G3516 is just one product in our comprehensive LNG initiative,” says Jason Spear, Caterpillar Marine product definition engineer. “As part of our new product introductions, we are bringing high-speed dual fuel solutions to the market for customers who require the flexibility to operate on diesel in the event natural gas bunkers are not available. Our Cat LNG engines are a perfect complement to the recently introduced MaK dual fuel engines in the 34 and 46 cm bore class.”
Moving into the future, Caterpillar Marine will be able to offer brand new segments, including the cruise ship industry, a complete line of propulsion and auxiliary engines with configurations capable of using dual fuel or 100% natural gas.

WHAT IS LNG?

Liquefied natural gas is a clean burning fuel that offers a safe and environmentally friendly alternative to diesel and has the capability to reduce fuel costs. With only one carbon and four hydrogen atoms per molecule, methane is the cleanest burning fossil fuel. In liquid form, much more fuel can be stored aboard vehicles than as compressed natural gas (CNG) so it is well suited for highfuel-consumption vehicles.

A natural gas that has been converted to liquid form for ease of storage or transport, it takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state. It is condensed into a liquid at close to atmospheric pressure by cooling it to approximately -162°C. The use of LNG as a potential replacement for conventional bunker fuels has become increasingly discussed within the shipping industry and suppliers have provided sound logistic chains to ensure the availability of LNG worldwide and ship designs will support the technology.

THE HISTORY OF LNG

Although naturally occurring gas has been known since ancient times, in fact, most of the natural gas that is brought out from under the ground is millions of years old, its commercial use is relatively recent. First attempts to liquefy natural gas for commercial purposes date back to the 19th century when British chemist and physicist Michael Faraday experimented with liquefying different types of gases, including natural gas. The first LNG facility was built in the USA in 1912 and began operation in 1917, but the development of pipeline systems delayed improvement of this technology for a long time. The next attempt to produce LNG was made in 1941, but the production reached commercial scale only in the mid-1960s.

The liquefaction of natural gas raised the possibility of its transportation to distant destinations. In January 1959, The Methane Pioneer, the world’s first LNG tanker carried an LNG cargo from the USA to the United Kingdom, demonstrating that large quantities of the gas could be transported safely across the ocean. It has served as a marine fuel for many years, but primarily on LNG carriers as “the boil off” gas, or in dual fuel engines. It is only within last decade that the growth of LNG-fuelled vessel market has really caught on.