TGE Marine Gas Engineering Leads "Green Shipping” Innovation

[By: TGE Marine]

The trend towards greater environmental awareness in global shipping is continuing and  legal requirements are becoming increasingly stringent. After decades of ships being powered by heavy fuel oil, this has long been considered outdated given the many pollutants produced during combustion. In order to achieve a better environmental balance, gas propulsion systems are increasingly being used for both newbuildings and conversions. However, handling liquefied gas in shipping requires a particularly high level of expertise, which TGE Marine Gas Engineering is able to provide. 

Founded in Bonn in 1980 under the name “Liquid-Gas International Ingenieurgesell schaft”, TGE Marine has since established itself on the market as an expert for cryogenic gas plants, tank construction, fuel gas plants and reliquefaction plants. Early on, the  company pioneered not only LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) systems but also the use of  LNG bunker ships, which act as mobile refuelling stations for ships. 

Over the past 40 years, TGE Marine has become a leading expert in gas tankers capable  of transporting ammonia, ethylene, LNG and LPG. The company not only does the engineering, but also looks after planning, procurement, construction supervision and com missioning, and operation support. TGE Marine has been part of the Japanese Mitsui  Group for several years. 

Under the vision “THE GAS EXPERTS – Innovations for Greener Shipping” 100 employees,  most of them engineers at TGE headquarters on the Rhine, along with 20 other employ ees worldwide, are currently working to make a contribution to more sustainable ship ping. “We take care of virtually everything that has to do with liquefied petroleum gas and that can float – from the first draft to execution and commissioning to long-term optimisation,” says CEO Jan Volkert Wibel, summarising TGE Marine’s role in the growing  market. In detail, the company established four different innovative product lines:

LPG/ethylene gas tankers, LNG tankers (shuttle tankers and bunker ships), fuel gas sys tems and FSRUs (“Floating Storage Regasification Units”). 

The core business remains the gas tanker sector. More than 250 such tankers have al ready been equipped with gas handling and gas systems by TGE Marine. The company uses state-of-the-art software tools and provides its customers with technical expertise throughout the construction phase. The LNG fuel gas systems specially designed in house – ranging from small container feeders and RoRo ships to mega-tankers and large  container ships – have been installed at more than 20 shipyards in Asia, Europe and  America on various types of ships for nearly all gas-powered main engines and generators available on the market. 

Liquid gas is transported cooled up to minus 163 degrees Celsius, which imposes enormously high technical demands on the storage tanks and refrigeration systems on the carriers. However, TGE Marine has the necessary experience in this area. Our highly motivated team works continuously on innovations for the future. The tanks and systems can be delivered in almost any size to meet the customer’s specific requirements. 

But TGE Marine not only designs the tanks for transporting LNG, it also offers its own designs for gas tankers. The use of these new technologies is seen by the maritime industry as a major step towards significantly reducing the emission of pollutants in global shipping. Other environmentally-friendly fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia are currently in the development phase. 

As the market leader in the ethylene and small-scale LNG tanker segment, the company is well aware of the safety requirements that liquefied gases demand, as they can be toxic and flammable. This requires sophisticated engineering with a focus on safety.  Customers often have questions about the correct handling of liquefied gases by the ships’ crews. TGE Marine is continuously working on advanced process automation and  improved support, combined with the development of modern training standards. 

In the field of naval architecture, TGE Marine's shipbuilding engineers also offer sophis ticated design packages ranging from feasibility studies to complete sets of class-certi fied design documents for all types of modern gas tankers. As a new development, the tanks can now also be installed in a more space-saving manner by turning the horizontal  tank 90 degrees while retaining the same design. 

One of the highlights of TGE Marine’s anniversary year was the delivery of a 28,000 m³  FSRU to Ghana, a project that clearly demonstrates the international nature of the com pany. This is because “Green Shipping” is a global issue in which the Bonn-based engi neers are ideally positioned thanks to their technical know-how and solutions for ship ping designed for sustainability.