STX Heavy Industries of Korea has held a celebration ceremony for successful domestic development of hybrid engine (DF engine) for onshore and offshore uses to be installed on LNG carrier at its Changwon yard in South Gyeongsang Province on April 15.
The newly developed STX-MDT 51/60DF engines are designed to run on both gas and heavy oil, having an output of 1,000kW per cylinder, a total of 9,000kW. STX succeeded in self-development of this type of engine for the first time in Korea .
The domestically developed engine is said to be a next generation hybrid engine designed to be operated with liquefied natural gas in diesel engine which is heavy oil-based.
The hybrid engine could not only reduce toxic substances, such as CO2, NOx, SOx and etc., to a greater extent than existing diesel engines, but also efficiently control fuel injection, engine knocking and so on to improve the engine’s fuel-efficiency and stability.
Moreover, marine hybrid engine can run on diesel and LNG alternatively depending on their costs; when the cost of diesel fuel is low, the engine exploits diesel and when the price of LNG is low, it can run on LNG as its main fuel that operating cost of vessel can be significantly lowered. Not only that, the engine can also be utilized for electricity generation onshore.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, April 23, 2013; Image: STX