Mr. Raffaele Piciocchi Raffaele Piciocchi is Naval Architect and Mechanical Engineer with 40 years experience. His varied experiences include Hull and Machinery Plan Review, Rule Development, Project Management of offshore and industrial plants. On 1997, he supervised the plan approval of the first LNG-carrier built by SHI. From 2003 to 2009, he has been responsible of the ABS group of surveyors dedicated to gas related activities in Korea. He has also been member of two SIGTTO panels drafting the new IGC Code. From 2009, as Divisional Training Manager in Singapore, he has been responsible of the training of all ABS personnel of the ABS Pacific Division. Since March 2012 he is in Athens to run the ABS “Gas Center”.
Today NG is transported through pipelines or, liquefied, by LNG carriers. These methods are not suitable for transportation in limited areas without infrastructures. For this niche market the supply of CNG appears more suitable. LNG and CNG are the same gas, however some risks are connected with their transportation methods.
ABS was involved with CNG since 2005 when published the first Guide for designing and building CNG vessels and having reviewed many different designs of proposed cargo systems. The review has been performed with new procedures applicable to innovative projects, mainly consisting in continuous assistance to the designers in all phases of the projects and performance of risk analysis.
This work has been materialized, as the first CNG carrier has been just delivered by a Chinese shipyard.