MAN Energy Solutions said that its two-stroke, dual-fuel portfolio of engines running on LNG or other fuels such as LPG and methanol has hit a milestone logging in over 500,000 operational hours.
The company noted that the service reports have been positive stating that recent experience from a 174,000 cubic-meter LNG carrier powered by an ME-GI engine logged reliability and availability figures of 99 percent.
Speaking of the technology, Bjarne Foldager, senior vice president, head of two-stroke business at MAN Energy Solutions said that the company’s dual-fuel portfolio can be considered as mature technology.
With the marine industry waiting to see how fuel prices and availability evolve after 2020, which will have a significant impact on shipowners’ choice of new engines, MAN Energy Solutions expects, for new or existing, electronically-controlled MAN B&W-branded engines, the choice of retrofitting to ME-GI or ME-LGI engines to ultimately become a necessity.
The company noted that to date, MAN Energy Solutions’ entire portfolio of dual-fuel engines has won almost 400 projects in total, all running on clean fuels such as LNG and LPG.