The Influence of Energy Consumption of Gas Vapour Reliquefaction on the Structure of the LNG Carrier Power Plant

This paper discusses the issues of reliquefaction of natural gas vapors on the Q-Flex type LNG tankers. DRL gas carrier power plant has been presented. The principle of operation of a BOG reliquefaction plant has been described. An energy analysis referring to nominal operational conditions has been performed. DRL LNG carrier’s power plant load at laden voyage has been estimated. The results have been confronted with the values typical for conventional LNG carriers. General conclusions on the size of the Q-Flex LNG tanker’s power plant have been drawn

Towards the assessment of potential impact of unmanned vessels on maritime transportation safety

The prototypes of unmanned merchant vessels are expected to come into service within the coming years. The main line of argument supporting their introduction pertains to the increase in navigational safety, which is expected to be achieved by reducing the frequency of human-related accidents on board ships, by removing the crews. On the other hand, the response of unmanned ship to potential accidents is still uncertain. With enthusiasm on one side and apprehension on the other, the literature lacks an objective study on the effect of unmanned ships on safety of maritime transportation. This paper constitutes an attempt to bridge the aforementioned gap by applying a framework based on what-if analysis to a hundred maritime accident reports. The aim of the analysis is to assess whether the accident would have happened if the ship had been unmanned, and once the accident had happened - would its consequences have been different. The results obtained reveal that the occurrence of navigational accidents (e.g. collision, grounding) can be expected to decrease with the development of unmanned ship. However the extent of consequences resulting particularly from non-navigational accidents (e.g. fire, ship loss due to structural failure) can be expected to be much larger for the unmanned ships when compared to the conventional ones.Peer reviewe