Recently, a very large ethane carrier of Shandong Ocean Group's Pacific Gas Vessels (Hong Kong) Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Pacific Gas Shipping Company") was officially delivered in Shanghai, this ship is the third very large ethane carrier delivered by Shandong Ocean Group, and will serve the ethane shipping route to China after delivery.

    This is another important move by Shandong Ocean Group since it entered the ethane carrier field in 2019.

    The group's first ethane carrier was successfully delivered into operation in 2021. "The Group's ethane fleet now accounts for about a quarter of global capacity, ranking first in the world." The relevant person of Shandong Ocean Group revealed that the group will take the landing of this project as a new opportunity to continue to deepen win-win cooperation and build a world-class ocean transportation operation management team.

    It is reported that the ship is the third super large ethane carrier built by Shandong Ocean Group in Jiangnan Shipyard under China State Shipbuilding Group. The ship has a design length of 230 meters, a width of 36.6 meters and a depth of 22.5 meters. The maximum cabin capacity is 99,000 cubic meters, and the loading capacity ranks first in the world for ships of the same type.

    "This is our ship centralized loading and unloading terminal, the shore is the refueling arm, the liquid through the pump into our cabin." When this ship is full, it can cross the ocean and come to China." Jiangnan Shipyard design director, super large ethane transport ship chief designer Chen Bing revealed.

    It is reported that the ship adopts the Type B tank cargo enclosure system (BrilliancE) independently developed by Jiangnan Shipyard. The type B cargo tank has the advantages of high safety and reliability, long structural fatigue life, low maintenance cost of the cargo tank, simple and efficient insulation system, high flexibility of loading goods, no liquid level loading limit, and less residual cargo in the cargo tank.

    Chen Bing said that the ship's outstanding highlight is the B-class cabin. "The tank structure is safe and reliable, and the fatigue life is very long, longer than the operating cycle of the ship. It will not break during operation, it will not crack." "Said Chen Bing.

    The interview was informed that the Type B cabin is a unique cargo maintenance system, which is even more difficult to build than the natural liquefied gas ship known as the "pearl in the crown". Jiangnan Shipyard carried out special research on the core technology of B-type tank by cleverly integrating the cabin mechanism and welding techniques, and finally developed a complete set of maintenance systems with independent intellectual property rights, breaking the technological monopoly of foreign liquefied gas cargo maintenance systems, and providing China's liquefied gas carrier technical solutions to the global liquefied gas carrier market.

    Chen Bing said that thanks to the advanced technology, at the beginning of the development of this ship to develop an international leading ship type goal, through this goal, in order to be in a leading position in the competition. For example, the low-temperature resistant metal material in the B-type cabin maintenance system is all domestic, and it must be built safely and efficiently. In total, the products used in the construction of this ship are calculated to be more than 80% domestic.

    "In terms of very large ethane carriers, we can say that we have fully achieved the international leadership situation through the autonomy and control of key technologies." "Said Chen Bing.

    As a global professional gas transportation service provider with ocean transportation as its platform, Pacific Gas Shipping Company under Shandong Ocean Group has become the first shipping company in China to enter ethylene carriers, very large liquefied petroleum gas carriers and very large ethane carriers, and now has the largest ethylene, ethane and liquefied petroleum gas ocean transportation fleet in China, becoming the industry leader in this field.

    As a kind of clean energy and chemical raw material, ethane has the advantages of high cleanliness and low cost, which is increasingly important in the industrial field and life field. It is reported that the Pacific Gas Carrier Company of Shandong Ocean Group began to investigate and track various ethane carrier projects in 2015. In 2019, Jiangnan Shipyard officially launched the B-type cabin, and Pacific Gas Ship Company immediately organized commercial and technical personnel to dock with Jiangnan Shipyard, and finally determined that Jiangnan Shipyard's B-type cabin technology is the best ship type for ethane ships, and launched cooperation with Jiangnan Shipyard.

    It is worth noting that in order to develop the Marine economy, Shandong Ocean Group continues to make efforts in the field of Marine energy transportation. After more than ten years of development, the Group currently operates and manages a total of 33 gas transport vessels, including 4 LNG carriers (including under construction), 5 liquefied ethylene carriers, 8 very large liquefied petroleum gas carriers and 16 very large ethane carriers (including under construction), with a capacity of 3 million cubic meters, ranking first in the industry in the world. It is the only provincial enterprise that owns methane, ethane, propane and butane carriers at the same time.

    China's "14th Five-Year Plan" modern energy system planning pointed out that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, efforts should be made to enhance the security and stability of the energy supply chain, promote the green and low-carbon reform of energy production and consumption methods, improve the modernization level of the energy industry chain, and promote the construction of a modern energy system, which also pointed out the direction for the development of China's ethane market.

    "Ethane, as a companion to natural gas, can be used as fuel gas for industrial users or cracked to produce ethylene, and has recently attracted much attention in the field of energy and chemical industry. According to statistics, the current supply and demand level of China's ethane market is showing an upward trend, and several related projects are expected to be put into production within three years, and the ethane market or to diversify." Zhuo Chuang information analyst Li Mingyue said.

    "From an economic point of view, ethane is more advantageous than the combined CIF price for LNG." Li Mingyue gave an example. According to statistics, in the week of June 1, 2023, the comprehensive CIF price of China's liquefied natural gas was 3953.4 yuan/ton, and the CIF price of ethane was 3464.3 yuan/ton, 489.11 yuan/ton lower than LNG. The strong economic properties of ethane make it concerned in the market, but because the supply of ethane in our country depends on imports, the stability is poor, so it is not widely used.

    According to Zhuo Chuang information survey, as of the end of May 2023, the supply of liquefied natural gas in 2023 in China is about 12,46800 tons, while the supply of ethane is only 1,832,600 tons, less than 15% of the supply of liquefied natural gas, so in general, industrial users will not burn ethane alone as a fuel, but use it as an alternative fuel. To increase the stability of the fuel supply.

    Li Mingyue said that when the traditional fuel gas economy is weakened or the supply is insufficient, ethane will also enter the market as a fuel gas. In terms of calorific value, the calorific value of ethane after combustion is 16,000 kcal per cubic meter, which is much higher than the 9114 kcal per cubic meter of natural gas; From the perspective of gas rate, under the premise of 0 ° C, the gas rate of liquefied natural gas is about 1400-1500 per cubic meter, while the gas rate of liquid ethane is about 700-800, which is about 0.5 times that of liquefied natural gas, so the gas consumption of ethane is also about 0.5 times that of liquefied natural gas under ideal conditions. It can be seen that ethane heats up quickly and has a high calorific value when burned, so some industrial users will also use ethane instead of liquefied natural gas as a fuel gas.

    In Li Mingyue's view, a large number of industrial enterprises that originally used liquefied natural gas, such as kilns, boilers, resistant materials, non-ferrous metals, smelting and casting, can use ethane as fuel. When liquid ethane is used to replace liquefied natural gas as fuel for industrial users, most of the original LNG equipment does not need to be changed, and can be directly used for liquid ethane storage, gasification and combustion, only the ratio of individual equipment needs to adjust the gasifier configuration, and only need to reduce the intake volume and increase the intake air volume during combustion to meet the use.

    It is understood that in the face of the development trend of the global energy structure transformation, 16 ethane carriers of Shandong Ocean Group use dual-fuel power engines. The ethane ship dual fuel engine reduces sulphur and nitrogen oxide emissions, meeting stringent emission requirements while maintaining optimal economy. At the same time, adhering to the concept of green development and management, Shandong Ocean Group actively explores the equipment renewal and transformation of existing operating vessels, in order to reduce the oil consumption of ships and improve the efficiency of ship operations.