Success story · LNG boil-off optimisation
A physics-based forecast showed the forced vaporiser wasn’t needed on a laden voyage. The result: US$122k of cargo value protected in 11 days at sea, with no change to speed or schedule.
From the first day of the voyage, the vessel was force-vaporising liquid cargo to fuel its engines. Tank pressure kept climbing. Worse, the forced boil-off hid the cargo’s true boil-off rate, so the boil-off gas (BOG) warranty could not be verified.
So the question was simple: was forced vaporisation needed at all?
At departure, GeoServe’s boil-off model predicted how much boil-off the cargo would generate, then tested that prediction against the engines’ fuel demand.
Departure weather route, load-port certificate of quality, Form B and daily noon reports.
Boil-off the physics model expected the cargo to generate.
Predicted boil-off (about 179 m³/day) could cover fuel-gas demand (about 180 m³/day). The FVU fed liquid instead, and liquid leaves the tank without carrying heat out. The heat leak warmed the cargo by 0.27 °C, and in a saturated tank, warmer liquid means higher pressure.
Vessel and client anonymised. Valued at load-port gross energy × US$18.1/MMBtu. Boil-off stored as heat must later be burnt at low load, flared, or delivered as warmer cargo.
Six capabilities turn voyage data into advice the crew can act on and the commercial team can audit.
Peng Robinson EOS run on the load-port composition: bubble-point pressure, latent heat, density and cargo ageing.
Heat ingress scaled to sea and air temperature along the weather-routed track. Sloshing boil-off from wave height, period and tank fill level.
Energy balance on the liquid, with pressure following the bubble-point curve (about 9 kPa/°C for this cargo). Predicts pressure for every operating mode.
Demand per speed from the Form B gas table, anchored to measured consumption. Gives the predicted boil-off surplus or forced boil-off need per speed and sector.
Advice checked against installed plant from Form B: LD compressors, FVU, PRS / sub-cooler and GCU capacities.
Stored heat reconciled with metered FVU flow, pressure checked against the saturation curve, and noon data screened for frozen or duplicated readings. Re-anchored every 48 hours.
Physics you can audit. Value you can bank.
Talk to our team about running boil-off forecasts on your fleet.
Request a demoContact us today and one of our experienced team
members will connect with you soon.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get company updates on your mailbox.