German engine manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions (MAN ES) has received a ‘major order’ to deliver dual-fuel methanol engines for six 17,000 TEU containerships being built for Danish integrated logistics company A.P. Moller – Maersk.
According to MAN ES, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) ordered six MAN B&W G95ME-C10.5-LGIM dual-fuel main engines for the construction of the six methanol-powered vessels ordered by Maersk.
Hyundai’s engine machinery division (HHI-EMD) will build the engines in Korea, which were developed in response to interest from the shipping world in operating on alternatives to fuel oil in order to reach decarbonisation targets.
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Number of methanol-powered vessels doubles in 12 months Green Marine Bjarne Foldager , Senior Vice President and Head of Two-Stroke Business, MAN Energy Solutions, said: “The adoption of methanol propulsion is gaining pace, behind which there are several drivers. Crucially, MAN B&W methanol engines are available and proven with the first engines having already entered service back in 2016.
“Additionally, as a fuel, methanol can be carbon-neutral when produced from renewable energy sources and bio-genic CO2. The production capacity of such green methanol is currently increasing significantly; it is also liquid at ambient conditions, which simplifies tank design and minimises costs. Finally, our methanol engine only require a fuel-supply pressure of just 13 bar and a number of manufacturers already offer such fuel-supply systems today.”
Thomas S. Hansen , Head of Promotion and Customer Support at MAN Energy Solutions, added that the company currently has a total order book for 78 ME-LGIM engines, of which 24 are firm orders for G95-variants.
“In addition, 19 of our 50-bore variants are already on the water and have accumulated more than 140,000 running hours on methanol alone. As a fuel, the future looks promising for methanol and we fully expect its uptake to encompass around 30% of all dual-fuel engine orders in just a few years from now” , Hansen concludes.
Last month, the company secured a type approval certificate for its four-stroke 32/44CR medium speed marine engine from DNV.
This presented a step forward in MAN ES’ efforts to meet the growing demand for methanol as one of the marine fuels of the future.