MInimal Ballast water Ship VLCC concept approved by ClassNK
Namura Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. has been work ing for years to develop a MIBS(MInimal Ballast water Ship, hereafter abbreviated as MIBS) VLCC together with Shipbuilding Research Centre of Japan, with the support of Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, The Nippon Foundation,
and other parties. On 25 February 2013, they acquired AIP (Approval in Principle) from NIPPON KAIJI KYOKAI (ClassNK) to the MIBS VLCC, the company reports.
A MIBS has an inclined bottom with narrower flat part, can be operated with much less ballast water than a conventional ship. Therefore it can reduce necessary ballast water treatment system(hereafter abbreviated as BWTS) capacity and fuel consumption as well.
The MIBS VLCC approved this time reduces ballast water weight in ballast condition by around 65%, BWTS capacity by 50%. With the same deadweight and the same speed, fuel consumption goes down by 4% in full load ed condition and 20% in ballast condition respectively, thus the average energy sa
ving rate is as high as 12%.
It is anticipated as an environment-friendly, economical, next generation ship. Namura will exert more effort to further hear opinions from markets and to make it from drawings to real ships.