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Tue 16 Feb 2016 09:42

Singapore LPG terminal receives first cargo


The low-flashpoint fuel has been described as one of the 'serious candidates to fuel oil in the future'.

Leading independent tank storage company Vopak has received its first cargo at the new liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) facility at its Banyan terminal on Jurong Island, marking the start-up of Southeast Asia's first independent LPG import and storage facility.

The shipment from the vessel 'Sun Aries' will deliver fully refrigerated propane to ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, one of the anchor tenants of Vopak's terminal in Singapore.

Commenting on the news, Tan Soo Koong, Managing Director of Vopak Terminals Singapore, said: "We are very happy with this successful start-up of our new LPG facility within our Banyan terminal. We are very well positioned to capture the flows of LPG coming from the US and Middle East and our independent LPG facility is geared towards becoming a strategic gas centre in the future."

Gan Seow Kee, Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, remarked: "We are pleased to play a part in the commissioning and start-up of the LPG facility, which adds to the long-term competitiveness for our industry in Singapore and the synergistic strength of Jurong Island. The LPG facility will help in providing us increased flexibility in securing advantaged feedstock for our integrated refining and petrochemical complex."

Damian Chan, Executive Director, Energy and Chemicals, Singapore Economic Development Board, commented: "Improving feedstock competitiveness is a focus area under the Jurong Island version 2.0 initiative, which aims to grow the sector in a competitive and sustainable manner. With this new LPG facility, crackers can now tap on alternative feedstock. This will strengthen our integrated chemicals value chain and further enhance Jurong Island's attractiveness as a manufacturing location for high-value added chemicals."

The LPG facility has an initial capacity of close to 80,000 cubic metres and is an 80/20 partnership between Vopak Terminals Singapore Pte Ltd and SK Gas International Pte Ltd.

Vopak has a long-standing presence in Singapore since 1983, when it developed the country's first independent oil terminal on Seborak Island. Currently, Vopak, together with its partners, operates five terminals in Singapore with a total capacity of over 3 million cubic meters.

LPG as a marine fuel

Last year, on June 17, MAN Diesel & Turbo licensee Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. carried out a demonstration of the liquid-gas-injection (LGI) concept using the very first ME-LGI engine to ever be commercially produced.

Speaking at the time, Ole Grøne, Senior Vice President - Low Speed Promotion and Sales at MAN Diesel & Turbo, described the event as a "significant milestone" in the development of diesel technology, saying: "The immediate market acceptance of our ME-GI engine confirmed the growing demand for low-sulphur, non-HFO options in the face of increasingly stricter sulphur limits in fuel. In turn, extending our dual-fuel engine programme with an ME-LGI unit that can run on liquid fuels was therefore a natural step.

"The interest in our ME-LGI engine confirms this dual-fuel, low-speed trend, and will offer even more alternatives to HFO, which - apart from methanol - will include LPG, dimethyl ether (DME), and (bio-) ethanol, as well as several other, low-sulphur, low-flashpoint fuels."

In a document, entitled: 'Using Methanol Fuel in the MAN B&W ME-LGI Series', MAN says: "To limit CO2 emissions, IMO decided already in 2013 to adopt the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) as a mandatory instrument for ships built after January 2013. This influences the engine market and technical solutions faster than anticipated. Therefore, to lower the EEDI, alternative low carbon fuels, such as natural gas (NG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and methanol will be serious candidates to fuel oil in the future."

In July, MAN also explained: "The ME-LGI concept is an entirely new concept that can be applied to all MAN Diesel & Turbo low-speed engines, either ordered as an original unit or through retrofitting. With two injection concepts, the ME-GI and the ME-LGI concept greatly expand the company's dual-fuel portfolio and enables the exploitation of more low-flashpoint fuels such as methanol and LPG."

Please find a link below to a feasibility study on LPG as a marine fuel by Sveinbjorn Kjartansson at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/158299.pdf

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