Marine vessel

The invention relates to a marine vessel operated with gaseous fuel having at least one gas powered engine, which vessel is provided with a fuel tank in which the fuel is stored at liquid phase, and in which vessel the engine is positioned in an engine room which is provided with an engine room casing extending from the engine room to exterior of the vessel according to preamble of claim 1.

Usage of gaseous fuel in various types of marine vessel is increasing due to its clean combustion and availability compared to e.g. heavy fuel oil or marine diesel oil.

Gas is typically stored in liquefied phase at low temperature tank, which is also a pressure vessel. Positioning of such a tank (or tanks) is problematic since conventional gas tanks are large pressure vessels and space utilization in a vessel is critical when considering economy and convenience of e.g. using the vessel. Liquefied gas tanks are larger in size and heavier than diesel oil tanks. And for example width of lanes in car decks is an important factor for e.g. roro-vessels, in which trucks are run in the ship along a ramp. Insulation of the gas tanks is also a feature which reserves room in the vessel, gas is typically stored at a temperature of about minus 162° C. (Natural Gas).

An object of the invention is to provide a marine vessel having an engine operated with gaseous fuel, which solves the above mentioned and other problems of prior art.

Object of the invention are met substantially as is disclosed in claim 1. The other claims present more details of different embodiments of the invention.

The basic idea of the invention is to integrate the fuel tank(s) in vicinity of the engine room casing and arranging the tank arrangement to have elongated shape.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention a marine vessel operated with gaseous fuel having at least one gas powered engine is provided with a fuel tank arrangement in which the fuel is stored in liquid phase. In the vessel the engine is positioned in an engine room which is provided with an engine room casing extending from the engine room to exterior of the vessel. It is characteristic to the invention that the fuel tank arrangement is arranged in vicinity of the engine room casing. This way the tank arrangement may be located in a space which is easily ventilated upwards in the vessel.

The fuel tank arrangement is preferably of elongated shape in a direction substantially deviating from longitudinal axis of the vessel so that it has a vertical dimension and a horizontal dimension and that the vertical dimension is greater than the horizontal dimension. This way the usage of space in a vessel is advantageous.

The fuel tank arrangement preferably comprises a number of interconnected separate tanks. A separate tank is substantially easier to lift out of the vessel than a single large tank in case e.g. reparation is needed. Circular cross section of the tank is particularly beneficial due to tubes are commercially available and their pressure resistance is good.

According to another embodiment of the invention the fuel tank arrangement is positioned in front or aft from an engine room casing in relation to longitudinal axis of the vessel. This provides the maximum usage of space in the vessel.

Hence, the invention provides several benefits:

• • Space in which the tank is positioned may be easily ventilated upwards
  • Meets the rules for gas tank location of Classification Society
  • Located close to midship, which causes only small effect on trim of the vessel
  • Long height gives small diameter for tank which results in small reserved area of decks and enables the use of standard pipes for building material
  • The number of free lanes on car deck can remain unchanged, since the tanks are aligned with casing
  • Small free surface area in tank minimises the formation of boil-off gas
  • Tank can be lifted upwards out of the ship for replacement


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