Engine manufacturers prepare for more stringent emission requirements of the IMO. Therefore, dual-fuel engines are increasingly becoming the focus of their portfolio. HANSA again provides an overview of the marine engine market this year
Enormously high bunker costs are forcing shipping companies to take action. While earlier the ship’s speed was the key factor[ds_preview], now it is in the shipping industry’s interest to keep particularly fuel consumption as low as possible to save costs. Engine manufacturers adapt to this development by increasingly designing engines which run slower and therefore consume less fuel. This strategy also applies in case the specific vessel is only half loaded. Such drives provide lower power ranges indeed, but in times of slow steaming this is of negligible effect. Further requirements for today’s engines are reduced maintenance efforts and associated lower costs. With stricter environmental regulations coming into force briefly, emissions are a factor to be taken into account by the manufacturers in the evolution of new engine technologies as well.
It remains to be seen which drive form will prevail in the future, however. There is strong evidence to suggest LNG, but equivalent infrastructure is still absent in bunkering. This is why newbuildings are still equipped with diesel engines in most cases. But more and more effort is spent to ensure that these engines are able for retrofit without too much costs – so they prove to be »LNG ready« once the bunker infrastructure is available.
Compared to HANSA’s engine list published last year not much has happened in terms of dual-fuel engines, but this engine type is increasingly in demand. Development and extensive testing often take a very long time, so some of these motors are not distributed, yet. Next year, however, more dual-fuel engines will be marketable.
The following tables show motors (main propulsion diesel and gas engines) with a power range from 300 kW and beyond. The data are either based on the information
of the companies retrieved by HANSA in a survey or on the current lists of these manufacturers published on the Internet. Accordingly, no liability can be accepted for the accuracy of the data. The table is organised in alphabetical order. Companies that operate only on the basis of licensing agreements were not included.
TWG/SG
