Fuel saving analysis and stability assessments of malaysian offshore fishing vessels fitted with dual fuel diesel and compressed natural gas

Abstract

Malaysia fishing industries are heavily dependent on the fossil fuels to satisfy its energy demand. Fuel cost of fishing vessels normally accounts for more than 50% of the annual operating expenses. With the increasing of global fuel prices, the future of this industry has exposed fishermen to uncertain future. Nowadays, clean burning alternative fuel such natural gas has become a great interest for fuel saving. A duel fuel diesel engine is a diesel engine that has been fitted to use compressed natural gas (CNG). Dual fuel engines provide numerous potential advantages such as cost saving, fuel flexibility, lower emissions, better efficiency and easy conversion of existing diesel engines without major modifications. This paper describes a study to reduce fuel consumption by introducing a dual fuel diesel and CNG for Malaysian offshore fishing vessel. An analysis of fuel consumption reduction is presented, together with stability assessments. The results reveals that dual fuel diesel can provide noticeable lower fuel consumption compared to existing diesel engines and stability assessment signify that the conversion to dual fuel engine has no adverse effects to vessel stability.