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Chevron Gas Turbine Tankers
A recent thread entitled simply “Gas Turbines” mentioned the fate of the half-dozen or so gas turbine ships built in Australia in the mid-seventies, which is the first I heard of the (mostly) untimely end of that boldly innovative experiment. (Unlike the Sealand and Seatrain GT container ships, whose history has been widely reported, and accessible to anyone who might be interested).
Also less known, as far as I am aware, is the history of the five gas turbine powered product tankers built for Chevron, again in the mid-seventies, and employed on the US West coast and Hawaii. About all I am sure of is that all five ships had their control systems upgraded during the mid-nineties, which means that they had already served for around 20 years without needing re-engining. This perhaps means that they were the only successful commercial gas turbine ships (apart from some ferries), and that they went on to give many more years of service.
Does anyone have personal knowledge of the ships, or know of any published record of their history/experience, such as a magazine article or a technical paper? Some points of particular interest include:
a) The fuel used (HFO would likely be the most economical) and whether experience showed this needed to be changed.
b) Average annual running hours of the gas turbines.
c) Average TBO for the GE main gas turbines. Being of the rugged industrial type, this should have been a long time. And which parts needed replacement more often than might have been expected.
d) Experience with the Ruston auxiliary gas turbines. As these were rather highly rated for the auxiliary power demand that one might expect of these ships (about 35000 DWT), low loading and hence high fuel consumption may have resulted.
Thanks in advance.
A recent thread entitled simply “Gas Turbines” mentioned the fate of the half-dozen or so gas turbine ships built in Australia in the mid-seventies, which is the first I heard of the (mostly) untimely end of that boldly innovative experiment. (Unlike the Sealand and Seatrain GT container ships, whose history has been widely reported, and accessible to anyone who might be interested).
Also less known, as far as I am aware, is the history of the five gas turbine powered product tankers built for Chevron, again in the mid-seventies, and employed on the US West coast and Hawaii. About all I am sure of is that all five ships had their control systems upgraded during the mid-nineties, which means that they had already served for around 20 years without needing re-engining. This perhaps means that they were the only successful commercial gas turbine ships (apart from some ferries), and that they went on to give many more years of service.
Does anyone have personal knowledge of the ships, or know of any published record of their history/experience, such as a magazine article or a technical paper? Some points of particular interest include:
a) The fuel used (HFO would likely be the most economical) and whether experience showed this needed to be changed.
b) Average annual running hours of the gas turbines.
c) Average TBO for the GE main gas turbines. Being of the rugged industrial type, this should have been a long time. And which parts needed replacement more often than might have been expected.
d) Experience with the Ruston auxiliary gas turbines. As these were rather highly rated for the auxiliary power demand that one might expect of these ships (about 35000 DWT), low loading and hence high fuel consumption may have resulted.
Thanks in advance.