The maritime business is historically a relative&nbsp;conservative sector where fleet owners and builders tend to stick to well-proven technical solutions. Current motivation for ship builders to adopt new technologies comes from globally raising demands on sustainable shipping and reduction of pollutant emissions as well as to minimize the operational costs. These requirements are calling for the use of new fuels that provide cleaner source of power generation but stay at least as economic favorable as the ones currently used. Alternative fuels can have very different properties and their use on board of the ships might require completely new technologies. In addition, the conventional technologies proven on shore may not be operating reliably in harsh marine environment and will require adaptation. However, such new technologies are a concern for Class authorities (Notified bodies) providing certification of the vessels to ensure the highest focus on safety of the machinery. Notified bodies are involved in design and approval of ships and are required to stay aligned with the latest industry developments, to allow implementation of the latest technologies in the marine sector. It typically results in regular updates of the certification rules, with more stringent safety requirements in each subsequent release.Gas turbines are typically selected for propulsion or power generation on-board marine vessels because of their excellent power-to-weight ratio, fuel flexibility, long maintenance intervals and reliability. These machines are operating in challenging conditions that are linked to salty and humid air, constant vessel movements, and/or lack of rigid foundation. This paper presents a novel gas turbine installation on the top deck of an oil shuttle tanker ship, its innovative integration into the vessel’s hybrid power generation system, and discusses the technical solutions that were developed to comply with the latest safety and environmental regulations.The paper further discusses the important design features and pillars of OPRA’s marine gas turbine technology, where the simple and robust design of the all-radial OP16 gas turbine is also projected into the design of the auxiliary systems and the whole marine genset, introducing a compact and light-weight technical solution which nearly doubles the electrical efficiency compared to conventional technologies, such as steam turbines. The long time between overhauls, minimized maintenance requirements, multi-fuel capability, and connection to the remote monitoring system provides a reliable source of power and high availability.

The Op16 Gas Turbine Gen-Set for Marine Power Generation

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/GT/GT2021/volume/84898

Turbo Expo 2021

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.