Tag: alternative fuels

  Stena Line has chosen to focus on the alternative fuel, methanol, and now the world's first methanol powered ferry, the Stena Germanica, has been launched, which operates on the route Kiel–Gothenburg. On 26 March, the Stena Germanica re-entered service after a couple of months' intermission. Now, as the world's first methanol powered ferry. Stena Line is thus the first shipping company to operate with environmentally friendly methanol as the main fuel. On Friday the 27ththere was an inauguration ceremony in Kiel and today, Monday the 30thof March there was a ceremony in Gothenburg "We are very enthusiastic about methanol's possibilities and it has the potential to be the maritime fuel of the future. We want to pursue change and development in the shipping sector and, with the Stena Germanica, our environmental impact will be completely different to what the industry has seen before," Carl-Johan Hagman says. Methanol is a biodegradable, environmentally friendly and cost efficient fuel that reduces the emissions of sulphur and particles by 99 percent. The ferry's fuel system and engines have been adapted in the shipyard in a collaboration between Stena Line and Wärtsilä. The technology is called dual fuel – methanol is the main fuel, ...

On 17 March, 2015 at MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Diesel Research Centre in Copenhagen, the company successfully demonstrated the ME-LGI concept in front of existing ME-LGI customers and partners, including Westfal-Larsen, Marinvest, Waterfront Shipping/Methanex, MES, HHI-EMD, MOL, and Minaminippon. For the purposes of the event, the company rebuilt its 50MX test engine to an ME-LGI unit. Vice President and Head of R&D, Søren H. Jensen, said: “Attendees showed great interest in the demonstration and the accompanying technical presentations; their feedback has been very positive.” He continued: “A number of years ago we identified the need to develop an engine that could run on more environmentally-friendly, competitively-priced fuels as an alternative to MDO/MGO. We believe the ability of the ME-LGI engine to run on sulphur-free fuels offers great potential. Methanol carriers have already operated at sea for many years. With a viable, convenient and economic fuel already on-board, exploiting a fraction of the cargo to power a vessel makes sense.” To date, MAN Diesel & Turbo has received orders for 7 × ME-LGI engines – a mixture of 7S50ME-LGI and 6G50ME-LGI variants – from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Marinvest and Westfal-Larsen. The very first engine will be produced by Mitsui Engineering & ...

Meriaura Group is strengthening its position at shipping market by expanding its fleet, and has entered into a contract with Dutch shipyard Royal Bodewes for building two 4700DWT VG EcoCoaster general cargo vessels. The contract for two newbuildings was signed in Turku in December. The delivery of the first vessel is due at the end of July, 2016 and the second will follow three months later. VG EcoCoaster is designed to cause considerably less environmental impact than conventional dry cargo vessels. The hull and machinery of the newbuildings are optimized to the speed of 10,5 knots in open water conditions. Power required for Ice Class 1A is achieved by a diesel electric driven booster unit. The aim is to almost halve the fuel consumption compared to conventional dry cargo vessels of similar type and size, and therefore also cut emissions remarkably. The vessels will be equipped with a dual fuel system, main engine ABC 8DZC being suitable for biofuel and MGO. Biofuel for the vessels is produced in VG-Shipping’s (part of Meriaura group) own refinery located in Uusikaupunki. Meriaura is expanding and regenerating its fleet. In December the company reported of time chartering four more dry cargo vessels. The regeneration aims ...

Yet another milestone in the quest for alternative, more fuel-efficient sources of power will soon be marked with the conversion of the ropax vessel Stena Germanica to a dual-fuel methanol propulsion system at Poland's Remontowa shipyard. The 240-metre-long, 1,500-passenger ferry, which will be converted over a 45-day period from 28 January, 2015, will be the world's first ever methanol-powered sea vessel. Approval and classification will be by surveying teams from Lloyd's Register. Preliminary tests on a methanol-modified Wartsila engine 6ZAL40S similar to the Germanica's were overseen in Trieste by five LR teams from our Copenhagen, Trieste, Gotheburg, Venice and Southampton offices. LR's Trieste-based Lead Specialist, Roberto Costantino, said: "We carried out three days of tests on a modified engine at Wartsila's R&D laboratory so as to understand the engine performance when running with methanol. While the test engine is a similar type to the four engines on the vessel, it has fewer cylinders. So the builders are converting the existing ones on the ship." The new fuel arrangement on the Germanica, which is owned and operated by the Swedish ferry operator Stena Line, will combine methanol as its primary fuel with marine gas fuel (MGO) as a back-up power source. ...

The CMTS Maritime Energy Task Team (METT) was established in December 2013 as an interagency forum for exchanging information and offering opportunities for interagency collaboration to examine a number of promising fuel efficiency measures and technologies and to address the challenges of retrofitting and the availability of fuel infrastructure. The Task Team supports Federal efforts to address the issue of alternative ship fuels, including Liquified Natural Gas (LNG); to reduce the impact maritime transport has on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change; and to meet anticipated air pollution requirements on ships. The Task Team is co-led by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the Maritime Administration (MARAD), and its membership is comprised of representatives from 13 CMTS member Departments and agencies: the DOE, MARAD, the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (SLSDC), the US Coast Guard (USCG), the US Department of the Interior/Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (DOI/BOEM), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the US Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Navy, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).  (You can click on the image to view the ...

The shipping industry is fully committed to total compliance with the 0.1% sulphur in fuel requirements, in Emission Control Areas, from January 2015.  And there is no reason to suggest that there will not be full compliance, says the industry’s global trade association, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).  “But there is nevertheless concern amongst those owners who know that they themselves will comply but who may worry about their competitors” said ICS Director of Policy & External Relations, Simon Bennett, speaking today at the Mediterranean Bunker Fuel Conference (organised by Platts in Barcelona).  Mr Bennett remarked “The shipping industry will be investing billions of dollars in order to ensure compliance with this major regulatory change.  It therefore seems only fair that governments should implement the rules in a uniform manner as we enter a brave new world in which fuel costs, for some ships, will increase overnight by around 50%”.  Mr Bennett suggested that, unlike some of the national authorities in Europe, the United States had made its approach to enforcement relatively clear.   “The real crime in the U.S. is to be caught providing false information to the Federal authorities” said Mr Bennett.  “This is a criminal offence, attracting ...