Wärtsilä and also Swedish delivering business Furetank are co-developing and also examining 2 innovations revealing the possible to cut in half the methane slip.
Running vessels on LNG or bio-LNG decreases exhausts of carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx and also unsafe bits, yet the drawback is methane slip: the launch of unburned gas fuel, not totally ignited in the engines.
Although the portion launched is little, methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
Two technological services have actually been examined in Furetank’s Vinga collection vessels. One of them is a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) decrease plan, established by Wärtsilä for twin gas engines. The GHG plan proactively manages the engine while operating in requiring problems like manoeuvring, rough sea problems or differing gas top quality. This means, burning is enhanced and also unburned gas exhausts reduced.
The various other remedy is the Low Load Optimization plan, decreasing the methane slip at reduced engine tons, for instance throughout harbour procedures like packing and also discharging. This plan proactively stabilizes the loading of each engine cyndrical tube, enhancing the general complete engine effectiveness also at a reduced engine tons.
The examinations carried out, both busy and also mixed-up, reveal methane slip was decreased by 45-50%.
“These are great results, far exceeding what we had expected or technically believed. The tests show a significant impact in absolute terms. We believe many shipping companies will be interested in these solutions. And this is not the end of the road, there is more to be done,” states Göran Österdahl, sales supervisor of aquatic power at Wärtsilä.
For Furetank, this is yet an additional action in proceeding the emission-reducing innovation in the Vinga vessel collection, developed by Furetank with companions and also the internationally many power effective ships in their section according to the IMO EEDI index.
“We had many discussions with Wärtsilä during the past years on how to counter the methane slip. It is a tough nut to crack and the most important technical issue for us to solve. There is an ongoing chase for new engine solutions which will only intensify with the EU ETS system and stricter IMO regulations. We are happy to have this fast track to developers and manufacturers of advanced engine technology,” states Clas Gustafsson, Technical Manager at Furetank.
The capability will certainly be carried out in the Vinga sis vessels presently being developed at the China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Yangzhou, and also retrofitted right into all earlier ships in the collection.
