Wärtsilä: Alternative Fuel Retrofits Will Be Driven by Vessel Life-Cycle Cost and Trade Area

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday June 14, 2016

Stefan Wiik, Vice President of Engines at Wärtsilä Marine Solutions (Wärtsilä Marine) says that ship owners' decisions to retrofit their vessels to use alternative bunker fuels will largely be driven by both life-cycle cost and trade area, the Motorship reports.

The comments came during a debate session at last week's CIMAC World Congress in Helsinki, which also featured high level representatives from MAN Diesel & Turbo SE (MAN) and Caterpillar Inc. (Caterpillar), who agreed at the session that the bunker fuel mix will be far more diverse in the future.

"There is not one fuel that fits all, we will see several different installation types, we will see retrofits driven by total life-cycle cost and the area in which you trade," said Wiik.

"Flexibility is the future and today we are already testing new fuels, and bringing new engines to the market which from the design stage are fuel flexible and can be upgraded or converted for other fuels over the years."

Fuel flexibility will also include hybrid propulsion the panel pointed out, with Christian Poensgen, senior vice president engineering at MAN, adding that the short sea shipping market in particular will need adapt to hybridisation.

Poensgen says that, even when electric propulsion is a widespread reality for short-sea shipping, diesel engines may still need to be used.

"The price spread for industrial electricity in Europe today and as predicted for next decade is heavily dependent on local electricity suppliers. This means that the piston engine may find space even in hybrid or fully electric, battery operated ships as a factor of stability for calculations in the business plans of our customers," concluded Poensgren.

As Ship & Bunker reported Monday, Nick Brown, Marine Director at Lloyd's Register Marine (LR Marine), says he still believes HFO will be the dominant bunker fuel in 2030.