French container operator CMA CGM has chosen WinGD’s largest dual-fuel low-speed engines to power its recently ordered 22,000 TEU vessels.
The 12-cylinder X92DF engines (12X92DF) will power a series of nine of these »mega« containerships. The vessels ordered by CMA CGM will be bu[ds_preview]ilt at the yards of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding. They are due to enter service in 2020 on routes between Asia and Europe and are designed to have the potential to sail complete Asia-to-Europe voyages on liquefied natural gas (LNG). The 12X92DF engines will be rated 63,840 kW at 80 rpm, making them the most powerful gas and dual-fuel engines ever built WinGD stated.
Beyond leveraging the operating economy and reliability of WinGD’s X-DF engines, with this futuristic move CMA CGM is endorsing the outstanding performance of WinGD’s dual-fuel engines with low-pressure gas admission as a way of addressing existing and upcoming regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO). »Given the low NOx emissions of dual-fuel engines using lean burn combustion and the extremely low sulphur content of natural gas, by choosing our X-DF engines and LNG, CMA CGM is automatically complying with all existing and future emissions regulations,« says Volkmar Galke, General Manager of Sales at WinGD.
The regulations already met by the WinGD X-DF dual-fuel engines include the Iimits on NOx in Emission Control Areas (ECAs) imposed by IMO Tier III and the 0.5 % limit on sulphur in fuel which will be introduced in 2020, as well as possible limits on particulates.
»The built-in efficiency of our lean-burn dual-fuel engines is also complemented by the favourable ratio of carbon-to-hydrogen in methane – the main constituent of natural gas – which mean that our X-DF engines are already low emitters of CO2 compared to liquid fuelled engines,« Galke continues. »Our X-DF engines are thus an excellent starting point for playing a full part in achieving the 30 % improvement in overall vessel efficiency up to 2025 specified by the IMO’s Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI).«
Looking at the overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the new vessels, as well as operating expenditure (OPEX), capital expenditure (CAPEX) is also reduced because the emissions levels of WinGD X-DF engines are achieved without the need to install exhaust gas after treatment systems. And by the application of the low-pressure gas admission feature of the X-DF engines, which uses less expensive, more energy-efficient gaseous fuel compression equipment compared with low-speed dual-fuel engines requiring high pressure gas injection, WinGD pointed out.
Orders of dual-fuel engines increase
According to the company it has received more than 75 orders so far for X-DF engines since their introduction to the market at the end of 2013. Besides being popular for application in LNG carriers for main propulsion, the number of orders received for cargo ships operating on LNG has increased substantially in 2017, with over 25 engine orders received in the year to date.
WinGD’s low-pressure dual-fuel technology is offered on all Generation X engines. It enables the very stable combustion, high fuel efficiency and low noxious and greenhouse gas emissions typical of lean burn gas combustion. X-DF engines comply with IMO Tier III limits on NOx in gas mode and IMO Tier II in liquid fuel mode, both without EGR or SCR.
With liquid fuel consumption for pilot ignition below 1% of total heat release and the very low sulphur content of LNG, WinGD also sees X-DF technology as the ideal solution to the 0.5 % global cap on sulphur in marine fuels proposed for 1st January 2020.
