Svanehøj increases DW Fuel pump pressure
The 23m long fuel pump is being delivered as a key component within a Babcock LGE LPG cargo handling system for the VLGCs which are scheduled for delivery to Trafigura this year. Increasing the pressure by 50% means that the customer will be able to reduce the number of high-pressure pumps from two to one.
“We had to put together a pump solution that could handle pressure of 25 bar for this project,” explained Martin Andersen, key account manager at Svanehøj. “Our fuel pump was originally designed to handle a pressure of up to 20 bar. With a few simple changes to the intermediate chambers in the pump cylinder, we have succeeded in increasing the differential pressure to 30 bar,” he added.
The increase in pressure in the fuel pump is one of several upgrades. Svanehøj has also changed the composition of materials on the fuel pump, so that the pump can both supply the main engine with LPG whilst sampling ammonia at the same time. The cargo pumps are also fitted with a new inducer, originally developed for ethane ships, which reduces pressure loss and gives a higher flow.
The scope of the delivery to each vessel comprises eight deepwell cargo pumps, DW250/200-3-K+IA (with screw inducer for extra-low NPSH), two booster pumps, NMB150e and two deepwell fuel plus sampling pumps, DW Fuel (Marine).
