Maritime engineering company BMT announced that it is designing a floating modular infrastructure, which can help the lives of people in off-grid coastal communities by providing reliable power and allowing the roll-out of cleaner fuels.
BMT’s AgileLNG floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) will incorporate gas engine or turbine systems and connect off-the-shelf with prefabricated elements to reduce the cost of gas distribution and power delivery.
BMT’s Dr. Richard Colwill stared: “Historically, electricity has been delivered to isolated communities via diesel generator power sets, but growing concern about emissions and the availability of huge gas reserves worldwide makes it an increasingly attractive fuel choice. Whilst liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a feasible alternative, to deliver a viable solution we had to develop an LNG reception system that did not incur major diseconomies of scale in the 10-50MW power range, that would make small-scale LNG unaffordable.”
The FSRU’s barge hulls will be made of concrete, thus being durable in the hostile marine environment, permitting longer lifespans, and less inspection and maintenance.
In this project, BMT collaborated with GL Engineering and LNG New Technologies.
Offline fabrication of storage and systems combined with significant prefabrication of the concrete hull and the use of standard off-the-shelf components, facilitates the delivery of the units. Power systems can be also barge based, or sited on land to suit local conditions.
Mr. Colwill added: “The drive to keep it simple and adopt a ‘plug and play’ approach will allow rapid development of key urban support infrastructure assisting the development of communities across the Asia Pacific region.”
