Grimaldi: 18 Engines Ordered for 9 Ships

MAN Energy Solutions has won the order to supply 18 × MAN B&W 9S50ME-C9.6 TIER II-compliant main engines for 9 × 7,800 lane-meter RoRo vessels intended for operation in the Mediterranean Sea. 

The customer is the Grimaldi Group, the Naples, Italy-based shipping company and leading operator within the RoRo segment. MAN Energy Solutions’ two-stroke licensee – Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (Engine & Machinery Business Unit) – will build the engines in Korea, while Jiangsu Jinling Shipyard Co. Ltd. will construct the vessels in Nanjing, China. Delivery of the first vessels is expected from 2020. MAN will also supply 1 × MAN TCA66 turbocharger for each engine.

The new RoRos are the first examples of a new series of hybrid vessels, which will use fuel oil during navigation and lithium mega-batteries in harbor, thus guaranteeing ‘zero emissions in port’ while still satisfying energy requirements at berth. The batteries will be recharged during navigation through shaft generators adding the so-called peak shaving system.

The new RoRos are part of what Grimaldi calls its “Green 5th Generation” that represents a significant expansion and modernization of the company’s fleet. They will have a length of 238 meters, a beam of 34 meters and a gross tonnage of 64,000 tonnes with a loading capacity double that of the Neapolitan group’s current, largest such vessel and triple that of its previous generation of RoRo ships. The MAN B&W ME-C engines – as part of the hybrid propulsion set-up – will enable a 100% increase in efficiency when measured in terms of consumption/ton of freight transported, compared to Grimaldi’s existing vessels.