The classification society Germanischer Lloyd (GL) and the naval building Japanese company IHI Marinha United Inc. (IHIMU), announced an agreement was signed in order to search and develop together solutions for  building big container ships LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) driven.
“IHIMU and GL both share the opinion that LNG propulsion will be a key technology to win the challenges the maritime industry faces in terms of emissions reduction and, in this way, it will reduce its contribution to the global climatic changes”, said Dr. Pierre C. Sames, Senior Vice-President and Chief of Strategic Research and Development of Germanischer Lloyd.
The concept study will be focused on the 13000C eFuture project, the first ship of 13,000 TEU capacity LNG driven, launched to the sea by IHIMU in 2010.
IHIMU says the eFuture 13000C Project presents a reduction of 30% on the environment impact and on the fuel consumption regarding conventional ships, and it presents some innovations as the double skeg (two keels) of the hull and the high capacity of the batteries which store energy from solar panels.
The new joint project between GL and IHIMU will focus on the LNG supply system, which consists on the bunker station, tanks, gas lines and preparation, to be designed by IHIMU. GL on the other hand will proceed to the project revision, risks identification and, after the well succeeded conclusion of the project, the first approval of the design.