In cooperation with engineering company HB Hunte Engineering, Hartmann Reederei of Leer developed a brand new type of environmentally friendly, cost-effective 36,000 cbm LEG-carrier (Liquefied Ethylene Gas) with dual fuel engine. The new vessel type is unique in every respect. For example, the innovative “Svelte”-bow design enables improved seakeeping and increased comfort at higher transit speeds. The low-resistance hull shape with its highly efficient propulsion system is designed for minimum emissions at maximum reliability. The operating range of about 10,000 nm is facilitated by a generous HFO fuel tank capacity – and an autonomous gas fuel tank system for an additional cruising radius of 10,000 nm. The LEG-carrier can operate on HFO, MDO, gas oil, LNG and, as a world novelty, on ethane. The shape of the cargo tanks is unique, too: The new “Star-Triblobe Independent Type C”-tank is an advanced design of the well-known bilobe tanks. “Star-Trilobe”-tanks increase the cargo capacity by nearly 30%, reducing costs through higher economies of scale. In co-operation with the Norwegian ship owning company Ocean Yield, three vessels of the new type have been ordered at the Chinese shipyard Sinopacific. Their delivery is scheduled for the second half of 2016. A long-term agreement for the three vessels was secured by Hartmann company GasChem Services with Saudi-Arabian petrochemical company SABIC. The latter just announced a cracker upgrade to using ethane from the U.S. as feedstock in their cracker in Teesside, United Kingdom. hartmann-ag.com