MAN sees growing uptick in demand for methanol dual-fuel two strokes

Written by Nick Blenkey
methanol fueling trends

Projected fuel adoption in two-stroke dual-fuel engines. Today, LNG-fueled engines make up the vast majority of dual-fuel engine contracting as represented in red in the bar graph above. Interest in methanol is increasing and a steady uptake to around 30% of all dual-fuel engines contracted is expected by MAN Energy Solutions just a few years from now, as indicated in dark-blue. Towards the end of the decade, ammonia (green) is expected to pick up as a marine fuel

Methanol is gaining ground as a fuel choice for newbuild ships and one beneficiary of the trend is MAN Energy Solutions. Hyundai’s shipbuilding division (HHI-SBD) has now ordered six MAN B&W G95ME-C10.5-LGIM dual-fuel main engines for the six 17,000 TEU methanol dual-fueled containerships ordered earlier this month by Maersk. Hyundai’s engine machinery division (HHI-EMD) will build the engines, which will be capable of running on green methanol, in Korea.

“The adoption of methanol propulsion is gaining pace, behind which there are several drivers,” said Bjarne Foldager, senior vice president and head of two-stroke business at MAN Energy Solutions. “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 biogenic CO2. The production capacity for this green methanol is currently increasing significantly; it is also liquid at ambient conditions, which simplifies tank design and minimizes 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.”

“We currently have a total order book for 78 ME-LGIM engines, of which 24 are firm orders for G95-variants,” said Thomas S. Hansen, head of promotion and customer support at MAN Energy Solutions. “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.”

THE MAN B&W ME-LGIM ENGINE

Developed for operation on methanol as well as conventional fuel the ME-LGIM dual-fuel engine is based on the company’s proven ME-series, with its approximately 5,000 engines in service, and works according to the Diesel principle. When operating on green methanol, the engine offers carbon-neutral operatiom of large merchant vessels.

MAN developed the ME-LGI engine in response to interest from the shipping world in operating on alternatives to fuel oil in order to reach decarbonization targets. Methanol carriers have already operated at sea for many years using the engine, and, as a result, the ME-LGIM has a proven track record offering proven reliability and high fuel-efficiency.

Methanol dual fuel engine
8G95MEC 10.5 LGIM engine
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