From Concept to Practice: A Discussion of the Technical Development and Construction of

the First Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Carrier.

Introduction
Since the turn of the 21st century, and indeed before then, the growth in gas shipping has
been noteworthy and the industry has seen changes in the transportation element of the
value chain from vessel sizes, propulsion technologies, containment efficiency and in many
other areas. As production has grown, markets as well have developed. Energy demands in
many areas of the world have resulted in new thinking on how shipping projects develop
and are implemented.
For the past 15 years there has been heightened anticipation of gas transportation on
smaller scales, in some cases for niche markets. A proliferation of technologies were
developed that moved away from the more traditional large scale approach of liquefaction
and ever increasing capacities (a typical new construction LNG carrier increased from
approximately 138,000 m3 of LNG in 2000 to 180,000 m3 today and vessels as large as
260,000 m3 were employed in the LNG trade). Large liquefaction trains and large energy
demands were the norm and are still a dominant part of the market.
In more than one application, a segment of the small scale gas world considered that the
use of compression rather than liquefaction may be the best solution for moving relatively
small amounts of gas over short distances where gas pipelines were not feasible.
Compressed natural gas, or CNG, could take the place of LNG. Such projects would not
require large liquefaction facilities and the quantities of gas associated with the larger
carriers. With the development of concepts along these lines, the ideas of how design
issues ought to be addressed arose, and Classification Societies were consulted in this
regard. Standards began to be developed around these discussions and were applied to
early concepts. Approvals in principle have been given to several CNG concepts over the
last decade, but until very recently no actual CNG vessel projects went forward.
In January 2016 however, that potential was realized with the launch of the first actual
compressed natural gas carrier, the Jayanti Baruna, by China’s Hantong Ship Heavy
IndustryCo. Ltd.
With the ordering and design of that ship, the associated technology so far approved in
principle would need to be applied to an actual constructed ship for the first time.
The Goal
This paper covers some of the technical aspects of bringing a new class of ship from the
drawing board to the sea. Essentially those associated with design and safety. There is a
long and strong record of safety in the gas industry when it comes to transportation by sea
and it is essential that the requirements and evaluation of new methods of sea transport are
addressed for equivalency in order to maintain that record.
The Project
The owners, Indonesian state utility company PT-PLN decided to develop a ship to transport
CNG from a CNG plant in Gresik to the Lombok CNG plant in order to generate power at it’s
Lombok power generation facility. CNG was deemed suitable for such a small trade in the
absence of suitable pipelines. For the particular trade in question, the vessel parameters
were defined as follows:
Capacity: 24 MMSCF @ 2200 m3
Length: 106.3 meters
DWT: 1341 tonnes
Containment:
Multiple vertically mounted steel cylinders @ 250 bar pressure.
Background to acceptance
As a minimum, ships comply with Rules that are based on years of experience and rigorous
engineering calibrated by that experience. In general, a CNG carrier has many elements
common to other ship types and the requirements for those elements can be drawn from
existing standards. Class societies have been one of the main resources for the shipping
industry for development of those standards. This is also true in the case of development of
a new class of ship and the elements for which there is no accumulation of years of
experience. Rigorous engineering is still required, but understanding that critical design
issues have been covered requires understanding what those critical design issues are. The
ABS Guide for Building and Classing Compressed Natural Gas Carriers was developed
considering those issues. In addition, it provides a framework that recognises that novel
features need to be identified on a project basis.
The risks to be mitigated on a CNG carrier are those typically associated with gas, plus the
additional elements associated with the carriage of flammable gas at high pressure such as
potential for jet fires, high pressure storage and heating and cooling associated with the
compression and expansion of the gas and possible cargo blowdown and all the associated
safety systems associated with containing the cargo.
Inspection requirements for the cargo holds and containment systems also require revised
thinking; with over 800 storage bottles as cargo containment, the regime of inspection could
potentially be prohibitive and not entirely necessary. Development of inspection schemes
needs to be done on a rational basis.

The technology
The idea that gas can be efficiently carried by ship without requiring liquefaction of the gas
will typically require compression. The amount of volume that can be carried in a pressure
vessel depends on the temperature of the compressed gas. While less than the 600 to 1
volume reduction associated with liquefaction of natural gas at atmospheric pressure,
depending on the pressure and temperature of the compressed gas, the amount that can be
carried by compression can provide for carriage of suitable volumes of gas by ship over the
right distances and in the right circumstances.
Carrying CNG requires pressure vessels of some sort, and different proposals have been put
forward and received approvals in principle in accordance with the safety concepts of the
ABS requirements for CNG carriers over the past decade. Approved technologies include
coiled pipes or cylindrical tanks of various material types and orientation and at various
pressures.
The subject project uses multiple vertically arranged steel cylinders at 250 bar.
Risk
Risk assessments are a tool used by Class Societies and others for evaluating the suitability
of vessels and when there is a large body of experience, the risk becomes understood and is
in part accounted for by prescriptive requirements embodying industry knowledge. Only
novel elements of a design typically require such formal risk evaluations. In the case of a
CNG vessel such as the Hantong shipyard case, the vessel is the first of its type.
Subsequently the formal risk process is used as a means of accounting for elements of the
absence of service experience.
In anticipation of this aspect of new vessel types design and evaluation, the ABS Guide for
Vessels intended to carry compressed natural gas in bulk includes by reference elements of
the ABS Guidance Notes on Review and approval of novel concepts. That document
includes such assessments which are intended to complement the engineering and testing
regime from FEED up to detailed design. It is anticipated that if and when more CNG ships
are built and experience is gained from a growing fleet of CNG carriers, risk assessments will
give way to more prescriptive Rules.
In addition to the studies mentioned, additional special studies cover the elements of a new
ship type. In this case, consequence analysis such as gas dispersion and fire analysis, as well
as special operability studies have been carried out.
For the first CNG vessel, a five day HAZID/HAZOP workshop was carried out and scoped to
include the major systems of the carrier including containment, structural aspects, jetty
facilities, onshore compressors and other relevant equipment as well as the interfaces
between them. The workshop produced a risk assessment matrix considering probabilities
of occurance and consequences of each of the risks and providing a roadmap of additional
studies and work to close outstanding recommendations. Subsequent assessments included
escape, evacuation and rescue analysis, Fire and explosion risk assessment and smoke and
gas dispersion analyses. A quantitative risk assessment was undertaken to quantify the risks
to personnel associated with the operations of the CNG carrier.
Typically, the goal of modifications recommended by the many risk workshops is to achieve
equivalent levels of safety on an equivalency basis with other ship types.
Survey issues
Consideration to the special Survey needs of CNG carriers are also an element of bringing
this new type of ship to operation. This means surveys during construction and also looking
forward to the lifecycle maintenance Surveys. The vessel’s hull itself is for the most part
subject to the same Survey and testing requirements for other vessel types. There are
however for CNG carriers special areas that need additional consideration. These tend to be
focused around the containment system. Tanks and piping systems need to be surveyed in
compliance with an approved quality assurance program and fabrication procedure.
Surveys after construction need to address any special needs agreed by the bureau during
design review including any findings from the Risk assessments required at that stage.
Typical annual inspections required particularly in respect of the containment system will
include among other things interbarrier space venting systems, cargo containment system
venting, instrumentation and safety systems, environmental control of hold spaces,
associated with gas leak detection, temperature and pressure control, insulation and the
adjacent hull to the cargo containment. The first annual Survey also includes an overall
Survey of the cargo containment system.
Because CNG carriers are of varied design, additional Surveys are to be reviewed, as well as
any special consideration for Risk Based or preventative maintenance programs.
Special Surveys carried out every five years in drydock will additionally include internal
examination of all the cargo tanks, and this can pose challenges for CNG carriers with
multiple bottle arrangements.
The future
It is the goal from a Classification perspective that using the techniques developed for novel
vessels, equivalent levels of safety are achieved matching the excellent record of LNG
vessels accumulated over the last 50 years. And with the delivery of the first CNG ship,
lessons will begin to be learned based on real experience to augment the considerable work
carried out to approve such a novel concept. Lessons already learned during construction
will be fed back into the approval system and will inform consideration on approval of
construction methods for future CNG shipbuilding.
Both the safety and commercial success of the project will no doubt also be watched and
may determine whether future projects go forward. With small scale gas appearing to take
a larger role, and with the possibility of further short range pipeline type service, we may
expect that this will be the case.
The techniques and body of knowledge gained from the first ship will be there to inform
future projects.