Widening methanol options

MAN EXTENDS THE RANGE OF ME-LGIM OPTIONS IN PORTFOLIO

MAN Energy Solutions has announced plans to extend the choice of mid-range options available to shipowners by introducing S60, G60 and G70 variants into its ME-LGIM programme

The company shared the news that it was adding the options to its engine programme in a customer briefi ng in February. The design schedules for the 60-bore versions are expected to be available from Q2 2024.

The decision to extend the engine programme followed shortly after the company announced the addition of a G80 option in December 2021. The G80 solution was intended to allow MAN Energy Solutions to address demand from 7,0008,000 teu container ships, as well as from very large crude carriers and large bulkers.

The decision to extend the engine programme reflects increased demand for methanol options from different vessel segments. “While the [Maersk] order for 8 x 16,200 teu container ships [powered by] G95 methanol engines sparked interest in 2021, we have seen increasing interest since, not only from container ships, but also from bulk carrier segments, tankers, Ro-Ros and PCTC vessels.”

The introduction of 60-bore and 70-bore variants meant that MAN ES would cover the entire range of necessary layout points for ship designers to include a methanol engine in almost any ship type above 1,000 teu.

Pilot fuel injection

One of the major areas of focus during the development of ME-LGIM engine has been the reduction in the environmental impact of emissions connected with pilot fuel injection.

One of the characteristics of methanol is that it has weaker ignitability than conventional fuels. However, MAN has focused significant attention on optimising pilot fuel consumption, as Peter Quaade, Head of Dual Fuel Technology explained to The Motorship in August 2021.

Kjeld Abo, Director New Technologies, MAN Energy Solutions, outlined the importance of emissions produced by pilot fuel injection in a ME-LGIM engine.

“If we compare an engine operating on methanol with heavy fuel oil, we will have a reduction of 30 to 50% in NOx, 90 to 97% SOx, 90% in particulates and 10% in CO2. If we operated a vessel on green methanol or bio methanol, the CO2 reduction would be 90 to 95%.”

Abo noted that the remaining 5-10% of CO2 emissions were attributable to the engine’s pilot oil consumption. “This means that if we substituted biofuel for the pilot oil, we would actually have a 100% CO2 neutral engine. I think this is a very exciting possibility if we consider the future.”

One of the routes to achieving the emissions reductions was the water-in-methanol (LGIM-W) abatement solution. The solution offered a comparatively competitive means of achieving Tier III compliance, but was not being offered as an option for all the engines in the ME-LGIM portfolio. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) or other abatement technologies were available for other engines.

Commercial interest

Before 2021, commercial interest in operating vessels on methanol was largely limited to the methanol carrier and product carrier markets. Over 14 50-bore ME-LGIM engines are in service, and the engine type has accumulated over 120,000 running hours operating on methanol alone.

The situation has since transformed, with MAN receiving a spate of orders from small-size container vessels and larger container vessels in 2021. Thomas Hansen noted that, taking dual-fuel engines as a whole, dual-fuel engines accounted for 32% of all engine orders received by MAN ES by capacity in 2021. “We had forecast that dual-fuel engine orders would rise to 60% of orders by 2030, but we are now looking to revise up that forecast,” Hansen added.

Hansen concluded by turning his attention to the potential retrofit market. While MAN Energy Solutions has 22,000 MAN B&W two-stroke engines in service, only 3,500 of those engines were modern fully electronic ME-C type engines which could be converted to dual-fuel operation. “We assess that approximately 2,300 out of those 3,500 engines are candidates for dual-fuel conversion,” Hansen said, adding that just converting those engines would result in annual saving of 86 million tonnes of CO2.

8 Six-, seven-,

eight- and nine-cylinder 80mm-bore versions of MAN Energy solutions’ methanol-fuelled LGIM engine off er an alternative to gas-fuelled MEGI engines to propel future VLOCs and VLCCs

X-Press Feeders order swells order book

Thomas Hansen, Head of Promotion and Customer Support, 2-Stroke at MAN Energy Solutions confirmed that the company had been awarded the contract to supply 16 MAN B&W S50 ME-LGIM engines capable of operating on conventional fuel or methanol. The engines have been ordered by Chinese shipyards New Dayang Shipbuilding and Ningbo Xinle Shipbuilding in China in connection with an order for 16 1,150 teu container feeders placed by X-Press Feeders. The order was announced by the Singapore-based feeder operator in November 2021, and the first vessels are expected to enter service by Q4 2023. The final vessels in the order should be completed by Q4 2024.