LNG dual-fuel retrofit conversion
Converting an existing oil-fuelled ship to LNG dual fuel: the engine conversion, the tank installation, the lost capacity, and what drives the yard cost.
An LNG dual-fuel retrofit converts an existing oil-fuelled ship to burn gas, which means converting or replacing the main and auxiliary engines, installing a fuel tank and its containment space, routing double-walled gas piping through the ship, and building the safety, detection and shutdown systems the IGF Code requires around all of it.
The engine conversion is rarely the expensive part. The tank and the space it occupies are, because the tank has to go somewhere that was previously earning revenue or carrying structure, and because the piping route and the gas-safe boundaries touch a large fraction of the ship.
The full article will cover conversion candidates and how they are screened, the engine conversion routes offered by the major makers, tank siting and its capacity cost by ship type, the structural and piping work, the class approval and survey sequence, the off-hire duration, and the payback arithmetic and its sensitivity to the fuel price spread. See LNG fuel system and gas ready notation .