EMEA News
Milestone Reached for Ethane / Multi-Fuel Marine Engine
MAN Diesel & Turbo has announced that the company's new G50 ethane engine has successfully passed its Type Approval Test (TAT) at Mitsui in Japan.
According to a press release, the engine will power the world's first ethane-fuelled eco-friendly LEG (Liquefied Ethane Gas) carrier – the first of three such vessels to be built in China by SinoPacific Shipyard for the German shipowner, Hartmann Reederei.
Besides operating on ethane, the ME-GI engine will be able to operate on HFO, MDO, and gas oil.
The first test and operation on ethane gas will take place after loading in Texas aboard a 36,000 m3 LEG carrier once ethane gas has been bunkered.
Once that test is complete the engine will officially be named a "7G50ME-GIE (Gas Injection Ethane) type."
MAN Diesel & Turbo says it has also developed an ME-LGI version of the new technology that can run on methanol, and will be available for the second quarter of 2018.
An ME-LGI version capable of running on LPG is also in the works, according to the release.
The company claims research indicates that the ME-GI engine delivers significant reductions in CO2, NOx and SOx, and has a negligible, unburnt gas slip; as a result the greenhouse effects are minimal.
In May of 2015 Ship & Bunker reported that Wärtsilä Corporation had tested and certified an engine that runs on ethane.
