Engine Systems News

MAN Engines said it is supplying engines for German customs vessels for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.The vessels, which are being built at Tamsen Maritim in Rostock, are also the first suitable for fording to be used by the customs authorities. The shallow 1.2 meter draft with a 23 meter length greatly reduces the risk of running aground at low water levels."The new vessels provide significant added value in the calm waters of the North Sea and at low tide.

As stakeholders across the maritime industry assess future fuel options in support of the International Maritime Organisation’s 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas reduction ambitions, Lloyd’s Register (LR) and the Methanol Institute (MI) have produced a Bunkering Technical Reference on Methanol, which is among the future fuels receiving close attention.The new guidance outlines the procedures required for the safe bunkering of methanol and incorporates dedicated checklists to assist shipowners/operators…

South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) were awarded a $2 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) grant program to upgrade the engines of 12 rubber-tired gantry (RTG) cranes.The EPA awarded the grant to DHEC, in partnership with SCPA. The funding will equip the Port’s RTG cranes with hybrid battery/genset engine systems, replacing the existing hi-power diesel engines.The new engines will reduce emissions of particulate matter, air toxins and nitrogen oxides up to 96% while reducing annual fuel consumption by over 100,000 gallons.SCPA Chief Operating Officer Barbara Melvin said S.C.

On July 11 MAN Energy Solutions, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and HSD Engine (HSD) have signed a strategic agreement to cooperate in the field of marine engine systems digitization. The signing took place in Copenhagen. Continuing a long relationship, the companies now aim to define a framework for a future long-term strategic digital cooperation.“MAN Energy Solutions is determined to drive the digital transition of the marine industry”, says Brian Østergaard Sørensen, Head of R&D 2-Stroke Business at MAN Energy Solutions.

German solution provider to the marine and energy sectors, MAN Energy Solutions (MES) has signed a Global Key Account Management contract with Hong Kongbased Wallem Group.The contract covers the supply of spares and services to MAN main engines, generators and turbochargers aboard vessels managed by Wallem, the provider of technology-driven maritime solutions.According to a press release from Augsburg-based MES, the global agreement covers all offices of the Wallem Group and provides access to a dedicated global and local key account manager from MAN PrimeServ, MAN Energy Solutions’ after-sales division. MAN PrimeServ will manage the contract from Hong Kong in close cooperation with a network of over 100 global PrimeServ hubs.Wallem currently has over 200 vessels under asset management…

Part I: Enhancing Engines & Fuels"Wood Mackenzie forecasts a 25 percent increase in price for lower sulfur content fuel based on a SOx scrubber adoption rate of about two percent, but some scenarios could cause LSFO prices to spike by as much as 60 percent."Around 80 percent of global trade is carried by sea. With more than 125,000 commercial and naval vessels operating around the world, ship-engine emissions are projected to rise by 250 percent by 2050 unless controls are imposed.

Riviera 68 Sports Motor Yacht to be powered by MAN V12 engines. Australian yacht builder Riviera Yachts is equipping its new 68 and 72 Sports Motor Yacht models with V12 diesel engines from MAN Engines. Customers have the choice of the V12-1550 or V12-1800 models, as well as MAN Engines' most powerful marine engine available on the market at the moment: the V12-1900. The twin-engine systems provide 1,140 kW (1,550 hp), 1,324 kW (1,800 hp) or 1,397 kW (1,900 hp) twice-over. Riviera…

Lars Ljungström has been appointed to vice president of finance and chief financial officer (CFO) for Volvo Penta of the Americas, effective July 2017. Ljungström will provide strategic leadership over finance, planning, budgeting and reporting for North, South and Central America and the Caribbean. He will also oversee coordination of IT systems and services, as well as legal and sales operations. Prior to this appointment, Ljungström was CFO at GKN Aerospace Engine Systems, where he was responsible for finance and IT…

Was the closing of the Houston Ship Channel for over three days in March 2015 due to the use of Ultra Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (ULSFO)? After reviewing the testimony, and evidentiary material presented by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) regarding the 2015 Conti Peridot’s collision with the Carla Maersk, it is the authors' opinion the report fails to address significant contributing factors. The NTSB has overlooked a serious threat to vessel operations throughout the world.

DNV GL’s fleet performance management solution ECO Insight has become an incentive provider for the Environmental Ship Index (ESI), a voluntary system designed to improve the environmental performance of sea going vessels. DNV GL offers a 50 per cent discount on the subscription to its ECO Insight Environmental module. “We are very pleased that the ideas underlying ESI are getting greater recognition from the industry and attracting a broader range of incentive providers,” says Fer van de Laar, Director of the World Ports Climate Initiative (WPCI). “Since it joined the ESI in February 2016, DNV GL ECO Insight has moved up to number 43 in the global ranking of incentive providers,”Fer van added.

Seaspan Ship Management Ltd. will implement the DNV GL fleet performance management solution ECO Insight to improve their fleet monitoring. ECO Insight will also enable Seaspan to increase their vessel’s performance and energy efficiency. “Seaspan has spent considerable effort to develop its capabilities around fleet performance. Close monitoring of the performance of our fleet is in line with our mission of safe, reliable and economical operations. The ability to measure hull degradation very accurately was what made this performance management solution interesting for us,” says Peter Jackson, Director of the projects and technology department at Seaspan. “We also welcomed the fact that ECO Insight uses the data we already collect on board our vessels.

Make no mistake, the commercial maritime industry will always revolve around heavy duty machinery and mega-machines designed to weather some of the toughest operating conditions on earth. But in recent years a proliferation of Software Solutions has evolved to help the machines operate more efficiently and cost effectively. MR editors report on latest developments in maritime specific Software Solutions. Kværner Verdal AS selected AVEVA Bocad Steel and AVEVA Bocad Offshore for use at its design and fabrication yard in Verdal…

Volvo Penta’s IPS drive system celebrated a decade in production this year — coinciding with the inaugural launch of the Volvo Penta IPS quad commercial installation in four Njord Offshore crew transfer catamarans. Njord Odin is the newest vessel to join Njord Offshore’s existing fleet. The catamaran contains a quadruple installation Volvo Penta IPS900 complete propulsion system. A lot can happen in 10 years. A decade ago Volvo Penta introduced its Inboard Performance System (IPS), changing the face of the leisure and commercial marine industries.

MTU Friedrichshafen, a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Power Systems AG, will be exhibiting its drive and service solutions at the international trade show for railway technology Innotrans from 23 to 26 September in Berlin in hall 18, booth 301. The company will be celebrating an anniversary on this occasion: Products from MTU have been driving the rail industry for 90 years. The exhibits include a historical Maybach GO 5 engine as well as current drive solutions such as an underfloor engine from the Series 1600 and a locomotive engine from the Series 4000. Automation solutions and services complete the MTU product range at Innotrans. Karl Maybach laid the foundation for rail drives of the MTU brand 90 years ago with the first high-speed railcar diesel engine in the world, the Maybach G 4a.

To help increase business and provide even better service for its customers, Laborde Products has been chosen as a Steyr Motors distributor. The company will offer sales, service and support throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. Laborde will also offer dealer support along the Eastern seaboard of Mexico, from the Texas border to Cancun. Steyr Motors M1 Monoblock engines are known for the lowest weight in class at less than 1.2 kg/hp and the highest power density, up to 92 hp/ltr.

According to engine control and instrumentation specialists CMR Group, significant fuel savings can be achieved by diesel engine owners and marine vessel operators using the world’s first commercial high horsepower diesel fuel quality sensor. The new Near Infrared Intelligent Sensor (NIRISTM) has been developed to detect fuel parameters through advanced hydro carbon profiling which measures the molecular structure of fuel. This allows real time optimization of injection, combustion and post-treatment for all types of fuel, including bio-fuels.

Wärtsilä’s group-wide quality programme and the quality organisation will become Mr. Maguire's responsibility from 1, Feb 2013. Mr Philip Maguire, BSc (Hons) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, will be a member of the Wärtsilä PowerTech management team and report to Lars Hellberg, President, Wärtsilä PowerTech. He succeeds Mr Osmo Härkönen who will retire at the end of January 2013. Mr Maguire joins Wärtsilä from Tetra Pak where, as Vice President, Quality, he developed and executed a quality acceleration programme.

The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation (Højteknologifonden) has invested in a project collaboration aimed to reduce older container ship energy comsumption by 10-20%. The collaborators in the project are MAN Diesel & Turbo, Maersk Line and DTU Mekanik (The Technical University of Denmark's Mechanical Technology Department). The collaboration partners explain that Increasing oil prices have resulted in the massive container ships that carry cargo to the four corners of the world having to sail at a slower speed in order to save fuel.

Wärtsilä, the marine industry's leading solutions and services provider, has been contracted to supply propulsion packages for 24 new vessels being built for the Singapore based China Navigation Co. Pte. Ltd (CNCo). The ships are being built at the Chengxi and Zhejiang Ouhua shipyards in China, and the contracts were signed with Wärtsilä licensee Hudong Heavy Machinery (HHM) in 2012 and during the first half of this year. All vessels will be fitted with electronically controlled Wärtsilä two-stroke common-rail main engine systems…

At the request of Maersk Drilling, MAN Diesel & Turbo and Doosan, who respectively designed and built the engines for the new drillships, have managed to optimise the engines so that they offer an unprecedented starting time for emergency start scenarios. The ngines can now start in less than 10 seconds – more precisely, in 8.5 seconds – which is extremely fast compared to the standard starting time of 30-40 sec. The fast start mode will only be activated during emergency situations, i.e. during a blackout, when the rig must be back up and running as fast as possible.

The third staging of the CIMAC CASCADES seminar for younger engineers and students took place at the ETH Swiss Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland on June 8, 2012. Organized by the CIMAC National Member Association (NMA) in Switzerland, the Division Combustion Engines of the Swiss Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Industries (Swissmem), the event was considered a considerable success by all attendees. In what may become the standard framework for a CASCADES event, the seminar itself was preceded on 7th June 2012 by a visit to a member company’s facility.

Inland and coastal giant christens ATB duo Jason E. Duttinger and Winna Wilson in an October New Orleans ceremony. The crew of the Jason E. Duttinger took a break from hauling coal between Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, and Florida on Oct. 30 as Kirby Corp. of Houston christened the articulated tug-and-barge unit in New Orleans at the dock of the Hilton Riverside Hotel. Both units were named in honor of two special individuals. Jason Duttinger was a senior transportation specialist at North Carolina-based Duke Energy when he died of cancer in 2011.

Korean companies Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries contract GE technology. The GE equipment will be installed on 23 new LNG ships and represents total propulsion power of 1,105 megawatts. Traditionally, the propulsion of LNG tankers has been based on boil-off boilers and steam turbines. In recent years, more and more ship owners have turned to dual-fuel engine systems combined with electric propulsion as more efficient solutions, up to 30 percent at high loads.