Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Marine Machinery & Equipment (MHI-MME) and the smart technology group Wärtsilä signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding the commercial marketing of a new energy solution for ships.
The new solution combines innovative technologies from both parties to produce greater power generation capacity and higher propeller propulsion for marine vessels.
Namely, MHI-MME’s waste heat recovery and energy saving power generation system (WHRS) will be combined with Wärtsilä’s operational control technology for shaft generator systems, aiming in more energy efficient ship navigation and an improved Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI).
Furthermore, notable is the combining of a power take off/take in (PTO/PTI) shaft generator system with WHRS to improve the stability of the WHRS. The WHRS sometimes produces excessive electrical energy. PTO/PTI generator will utilize this energy to drive the propeller shaft.
At full load, the surplus energy can be used to assist the ship’s drive, at low main engine load, the WHRS can be operated along with a diesel generator set. Parallel operation with a shaft generator via PTO operation is also easily implemented, MHI-MME notes.
The new system allows the operation of the WHRS at reduced speed to create more efficiency in the turbine system at part load, thus avoiding the necessity of speed regulation valves, which cause throttle or bypass losses.
MHI-MME’s henergy saving technologies will be integrated in the power turbine generator, enabling electricity supply across a range from approximately 500 to 2,000 kilowatts (kW), driven by gas extracted from a 2-stroke main engine, via the PTO/PTI generator, the company concluded.
