□ The Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean engineering (President Booki Kim, hereinafter KRISO) announced that its Medium-size Ship Design & Engineering Project (Led by Jeongjung Kim) obtained an Approval in Principle (AiP) for an independently developed LNG-fueled 13,000 DWT class chemical tanker from Lloyd’s Register (LR*) on the 28th.

* LR(Lloyd’s Register): A UK-based organization which defines engineering and safety standards for ships and conducts inspections and surveys of ship construction and operation.

□ This chemical tanker developed by KRISO’s Medium-size Ship Design & Engineering Project can hold around 13,000 tons of cargo in 12 cargo tanks, and is characterized by a 380㎥ independent (Type C) LNG fuel tank installed on the upper deck.

□ While existing chemical tankers have used fossil fuel for ships such as bunker C fuel, this novel chemical tanker uses LNG fuel, in line with the transition to eco-friendly fuel powered ships under regulations such as IMO’s sulphur oxide emission standards.

□ In the early 2000s, the small-scale 10,000-20,000 DWT chemical tanker was an attractive market segment for Korea, with Korean small and medium shipbuilders occupying 60% of the global market. However, this market leadership was lost to Japan and China after the 2008 financial crisis.

□ Nevertheless, small-scale chemical tankers make up over 30% of the global chemical tanker market, with more than 50 new ships being built per year on average, making it a large market that cannot be ignored.

□ Thus, the KRISO Medium-size Ship Design & Engineering Project team revisited the 13,000 DWT class chemical tankers which used to be the flagship product of Korean small and medium shipbuilders in the early 2000s, to develop a new hull form that would match demand arising from the transition to eco-friendly fuel, and the replacement of aged chemical tankers with eco-friendly ships.

□ Apart from the adoption of LNG fuel, the hull form was also optimized to minimize fuel consumption based on the project team’s fluid mechanics-based core technology. Performance qualification was performed through model testing.

□ The newly developed chemical tanker is designed to not only satisfy IMO’s Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) Phase 3 requirements for newly constructed ships, but also Phase 4 requirements which are expected to be adopted from 2030. It has also demonstrated safety with intact stability and damage stability under the IS Code* and IBC Code**.

* IS Code: International Code in Intact Stability, international regulations on intact stability to ensure the safe operation of ships

** IBC Code: International Code for the Construction and Equipment of Ships Carrying Dangerous Chemicals in Bulk

□ Jeongjung Kim, leader of the KRISO Medium-size Ship Design & Engineering Project commented, “we promise to provide the best technological support to Korean shipbuilders to facilitate orders of the eco-friendly ship with a newly innovated hull form, so that Korean small and medium shipbuilders may reclaim their past glory in the small-scale chemical tanker market.”