LNG newbuilds to get electric propulsion
Samsung Heavy Industries is working towards a new generation of environmental friendly LNG powered ships
The Korean shipbuilder, Samsung Heavy Industries, has ordered electrical propulsion systems from STADT AS in Norway for a new generation of environmental friendly LNG powered ships.
The electric propulsion systems will have the patented STADT STASCHO No-Loss Drive system installed. Samsung has, together with the Korean government, adopted an increased focus on developing more sustainable propulsion technology for their ships. Reduction of CO2, NOx and fuel are important goals, together with a move away from oil to natural gas.
This propulsion system enables the LNG fuelled generators to operate at a steady load independently of how much power used on the propellers which are driven by the robust STADT electric No-Loss drive system.
STADT has, over the last 10 years, developed the No-Loss drive system which is now in its fifth generation. One of the main advantages of the system is that there are no big power transformers used in the STADT technology which saves a lot of space, weight and power losses. The product range is very comprehensive, covering propeller systems from 100kW up to 100MW in many voltage classes from 220V up to 15kV.
Another of the technological benefits with the new system is that it is completely free from any disturbances, such as electromagnetic interference- EMI, acoustic noise and vibrations. These properties are particularly advantageous for naval vessels which represent one of the many potential markets for STADT’s technology internationally according to STADT director Hallvard Slettevoll.
AC-Technology improves reliability versus DC systems. For many years STADT have seen that there is a direct link between unpredicted major failures and even explosions in drives that have incorporated big DC capacitor system inside the drives. These capacitors and low inductive DC switching circuits with minimal insulation creepage distances, often less than 1 millimeter at up to 1000 V DC , have represented a major part of the undesired faults, lead to limited lifetime and failure situation for those products.
In the STADT STASCHO drives, the use of DC capacitors is very much limited, and only used temporary – thus eliminating those seen problems from past generation drives.
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
