Japanese shipping company NYK has concluded a shipbuilding contract with China Merchants Jinling Shipyard (Nanjing) for four LNG-fuelled pure car, truck carriers (PCTCs), it said on February 12.  

These four vessels will be delivered from 2022 to 2023 and are planned to be assigned to transport vehicles mainly to and from Europe as well as the Middle East. 
 
On these vessels, WinGD’s X-DF2.0 iCER (intelligent control by exhaust recycling) main engine will be utilised for the first time in the world, NYK said. This engine consumes less gas and reduces GHG by cutting methane emissions from exhaust gas by approximately 50%. Further, the vessels will be equipped with battery hybrid technology, which will improve fuel efficiency by mitigating main engine and electrical generator load fluctuations through the support of batteries.  

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“The use of LNG fuel, together with these new technologies and other developments such as hull modification, will contribute to a reduction of sulfur oxide emissions by 99% compared to ships fueled by heavy fuel oil,” NYK said. “Likewise, nitrogen oxide emissions will be cut by 96%, and CO₂ emissions by approximately 40% or more (per unit of transportation).” 
 
NYK plans to replace its current vessels with around 40 newly built LNG-fueled PCTCs over the next decade to achieve its environment management target.