Lloyd’s Register (LR), in collaboration with SDC Ship Design and Consult, has developed a new concept for the use of ballast water tanks in place of cofferdams around methanol tanks, allowing ship operators more space for methanol fuel technology.

For retrofits of methanol technology on existing ships, the development is expected to enable shipowners to convert their vessels without a loss of valuable space, by removing the requirement for cofferdams around fuel tanks as required by MSC.1/Circ.1621.  

Cofferdams are large spaces used to prevent contents from adjacent tanks leaking directly to other areas. The need for this space either increases the size of a vessel or takes space that could be better utilised, and correspondingly increases a ship’s fuel consumption.