Fuel-saving Modifications for Containerships’ Engines

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., and 100% owned subsidiary MES Technoservice Co., Ltd., have received an order from a Taiwan shipowner for fuel-efficiency modifications to the main engine (Mitsui-MAN B&W 12K98MC/M6) of three large type container vessels.

In recent years the rising costs of fuel oil together with the need to reduce the environmental impact of shipping vessels have sharply increased the practice of slow steaming especially for large container vessels whose annual fuel oil costs can run into the billions of Yen.

The modifications to be carried out, referred to as “Derating”, involves reducing the MCO output by modifying the main engine and turbocharger. The modification will increase the cylinder P.max as well as the mean effective pressure thereby increasing combustion efficiency. This results in a significant reduction in fuel consumption, even greater than the method of turbocharger cut out which has been applied to several large type container vessels in recent years.

Depending on the vessel operation patterns, the expected payback period for the modification work is one-two years.

The above modification work is to be carried out later this year.

mes.co.jp