Cleaner, natural gas engines for ships

Experts in the EU-funded HELIOS task developed a workable option injection system and other associated technologies for using fluid natural gas (LNG) to energy large two-stroke ship motors.

This LNG-fuel control product is the first in the world for two-stroke heavy marine diesel machines, and has generated commercial purchases from shippers, says job coordinator, Lars Ryberg Juliussen, a senior manager in MAN Diesel & Turbo in Copenhagen.

MAN Diesel powered & Turbo has already released the system on the ship marketplace as an option for new boats and for existing ship applications. Orders have already been placed through companies in the EU, The japanese and the US for twenty such dual-fuel engines, along with options on 50 much more in the offing, he provides. These engines will be constructed under the MAN licence program in EU, Korea, Asia or China.

The requests include engines on 43 new vessels, of which one container vessel will be built-in Croatia. Two of the search engines will be retrofitted on a LNG tanker in Qatar. The actual retrofitting job will take regarding four weeks with a supervising group of eight people coming from MAN. All components of the actual “retrofit kit” will be stated in Europe.

Cutting sulphur contaminants

The new engines are cleanser burning than traditional two-stroke ship engines running upon heavy fuel-oil or diesel powered, and will help ship providers meet the EU's tighter release rules on marine sulphur pollutants. The rules come into impact from 2015.

These LNG-fuelled engines will also meet the actually stricter regulations entering into pressure for the North Sea, the particular Baltic and the Channel, that are being designated "sulphur-emission manage areas" with a limit in sulphur in fuel associated with just 0. 1%.

Gas is a cleaner fuel compared to diesel and is free of sulphur dioxide. Sulphur is a main cause of acid rain, so that as an air-borne pollutant plays a role in a host of human health problems.

The motor engine fitted with what is known as M-type, electronically controlled, gas shot (ME-GI) technology also slashes nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions by 24% compared to a similar engine only using diesel or heavy gas oil, according to tests performed within the project. Emissions regarding carbon dioxide (CO2), a major green house gas, dropped by 23%.

Engines the size of a four-storey building

“We are not speaking of a 1960s two-stroke motorbike engine here, ” states Juliussen. “This could be a 14-cylinder diesel engine that is twenty-eight metres long, 13 metre distances high and weighs more than 2 000 tonnes. It is the scale a four-storey building. ”

While natural gas has been utilized as a fuel for four-stroke marine engines, to date the control system suitable for typically the low-rpm (revolutions per minute), two-stroke diesel engines which power 95% of ships over 5 000 loads has not been available. Such motors typically run at about 100 rpm, often switching a single large propeller through direct drive.

The HELIOS researchers developed a new high-pressure gas-injection system for these big marine two-stroke engines. The particular engines are dual-fuel, operating on either LNG or even fuel oil. Electronic control-systems drive separate injectors for every fuel type.

The venture also created a testing facilities for a diesel-gas engine which is used in the coming years for more tests on gas provide technologies. Other engine elements were also developed through the undertaking, including:

new piston bands for high temperature gas ignition;
new gas injectors;
brand new valves for high temperature fuel combustion;
new optic dimension tools (laser) for checking running engines.
Some of the fresh equipment was developed by colleges (sensors) and SMEs (new injectors).

First on the market

Juliussen sees demand for the new motor as likely to build whilst fuel prices rise as well as emission controls become actually stricter.

“Our gas-burning machines tend to be more fuel-efficient than fuel-oil because of the higher calorific associated with gas as a fuel, ” he says. “As often the attractions of running about gas become clearer, increasingly more ports are being fitted with LNG refuelling facilities to meet need. ”

The ME-GI remedy will also provide the basis for any new generation of deliver engines powered by gas.

Some continuation of the investigation done through HELIOS may be included in the follow up to the Forzudo C project. A project suggestion is being prepared by MAN and also Finland’s Wärtsilä.China diesel engine of Yuchai engine.