63,840 kilowatts, the largest in the world
A behemoth, the height of a five-story building, if you just look at it from a distance and don't tell you what it is, you will certainly not associate it with the engine. And its weight is more than 2,100 tons.
A large ship needs a powerful power output, and this behemoth is a marine engine. It was officially rolled off the production line in May 2020 and was released simultaneously in Beijing, Shanghai, Marseille, Paris, and Winterthur.
The developer of the ship is China Shipbuilding Winterthur Engine Co., Ltd., and the manufacturing unit is the domestic China Shipbuilding Group. With the success of this engine rolling off the assembly line, it has several world number one titles.
In terms of power, it is the largest dual-fuel engine in the world. It is also the world's first and largest dual-fuel engine to be assembled and used in the world.
Such a big guy, but it uses very little fuel when it is turned on. Overall NOx emissions are less than one-tenth of that of conventional engines. At the same time, the emission of sulfur oxides and particulate matter is also controlled within a very low range.
This means that once the engine is officially put into service, the ship will be able to fully meet the IMO emission standards without the need for additional treatment facilities.
Compared with the past, the emission regulations for marine engines have become more stringent in recent years. On the one hand, because of the increasing shortage of fuel, on the other hand, it is also because global carbon emission reduction is a rigid need, and marine engines are large fuel consumers, so energy saving, environmental protection and high efficiency have become the new direction of modern marine engine research and development.
In addition to energy efficiency, the engine also uses an intelligent control system, which can provide real-time warnings during operation and online diagnosis of engine conditions. This system is developed independently by Continental and is the first time it has been installed on this type of engine.
At present, the volume of international maritime trade continues to increase, and the major shipping companies are also competing with each other, all hoping to have ships with high carrying capacity and power.
This means that dual-fuel engines will have more room to play in the future. Our core is constantly improving, and the overall manufacturing industry chain is also accelerating the structure and layout.
Therefore, from the demand for transportation, to the utilization of kinetic energy for energy conservation and emission reduction, new technologies and new equipment can provide strong impetus for the next step of shipping trade.
Moreover, the first engine rolled off the assembly line in 2020, and immediately after that, orders continued to arrive.
In one year, 75 orders have been received
It takes a stage for new technologies to be applied and demonstrated. Technical problems need to be overcome by R&D personnel, while doubts, wait-and-see and wandering in the market need to be handed over to time to test.
Our dual-fuel engines, from the first off the assembly line to 75 orders in 2021, are experienced behind the twists and turns, which only the R&D personnel and technical team know.
Previously, when the technical team of CSSC Group was tackling key problems, it was just in time for the outbreak of the epidemic, and all plans and timelines were disrupted. But R&D itself has entered the most critical moment, and if the process is interrupted at this time, it is easy to leave a bad impression on customers.
Just when everything got quite tricky, the whole team decisively changed the pace of work. They were divided into two groups and worked in succession day and night.
Sometimes during the day, the technical parameters are mainly verified on the production line, and at night, the other half of the people are responsible for rectifying the previous problems. The whole process can be described as non-stop, and there is constantly to follow the R&D team in Europe for remote analysis and discussion.
It is precisely because of this desperate posture that the engine can be adjusted normally during the epidemic according to the scheduled time.
All working hours are not fixed, and some engineers are involved in the whole process from the production line to the commissioning of the dock to the loading of the ship for sea trials. In 2021, when the epidemic was at its worst, the R&D team in Europe could not come to the site, and remote collaboration had to face the problem of time difference.
This kind of super-large engine has tens of thousands of various spare parts inside, and many spare parts cannot be produced in China before and need to be imported. However, due to the factors of the epidemic, the imported parts could not reach at all, and seeing that the procurement could not be promoted, the technical team could only organize personnel to focus on tackling key problems.
At that time, the technicians combed and analyzed tens of thousands of parts, found out a lot of the most likely problems, and then found domestic supporting manufacturers to tackle key production plans. Relying on the planned backup of domestic supporting factories, the possible problem side of supporting parts is guaranteed.
At the same time, it is precisely because of our continuous R&D and production plans that everything is progressing in an orderly manner according to the plan, so there will be more and more orders from external sources.
In the view of the entire technical team, in order to adapt to the larger market demand, more products must be launched in the future. The key to product launch is to tackle key problems in the field of low-carbon fuels and even zero-carbon fuels.
Dual-fuel will be the basis for this type of engine in the future, and all technical upgrades will be built on this level. As of 2021, in the launch of new products, the intelligent control technology of exhaust gas recirculation has been successfully launched.
This new technology will ensure that fuel consumption, gas consumption and methane gas escape are minimized after the engine is working. For the technical team, as long as the technical upgrade is practical, then our products can occupy an absolute advantage in the future ship market.
The second generation of the product is upgraded
Before 2021, it was still a first-generation product, and by the beginning of 2023, the manufacturing enterprises under the China Shipbuilding Group will once again deliver a new generation of dual-fuel engines.
Compared to the first generation, the backup fuel for the new generation of engines is natural gas. In gas mode, the engine uses the Diesel cycle technology.
Compared to conventional diesel fuel, the new system will reduce CO2 emissions by about 23%, nitrogen oxides by 30%, and particulate matter and sulfur oxides by 90% to 97%, respectively.
The engine itself does not require an additional scrubber, in order to comply with emission restrictions. As a result, the overall structure of the engine is simpler and the operation is more flexible.
Such an energy-saving, powerful and quite powerful engine, which shipping company will not like it. Therefore, compared with the first-generation products, the application scenarios of the second-generation engine will be broader.
From the perspective of the industry as a whole, our technological breakthroughs in engines are closely related to the new emission measures of marine fuel in recent years. The leap in technology will undoubtedly enhance the competitiveness of our products.
The construction of large-size engines has been transferred to domestic shipyards
0.5%, which is a new standard for low-sulphur marine fuel introduced by the International Maritime Organization three years ago. It sounds like a very small number, but from a technical point of view, it would be a leap and a revolution to bring the next generation of engines into compliance with emission standards.
In the eyes of industry insiders, this requires the shipping industry as a whole to adjust and reshape the business. It is worth mentioning that although the engine technology is being upgraded, it also has to face the practical problem of the difference in the grade of marine fuel.
The new engine uses a dual-fuel system, which does not mean that diesel is completely abandoned. And different fuels bring different long-term damage to the engine. Therefore, on the whole, the way to reduce damage can only be avoided through continuous innovation in technology.
At present, technological innovation and manufacturing have gradually shifted from Europe to China. In the past, a large number of marine engines were produced and built in Germany and Denmark, but in recent years, as the size of the engine has become larger and larger, many products and a large number of orders have begun to gather in domestic shipyards.
Continental has become the world's most important shipbuilding producer, whether it is the production of engines, or the next step of the transformation of ship engine systems, the market development potential in these fields is huge.
For example, in some engine transformation projects, methanol engines will be manufactured for the first time in China in 2023, and exhaust gas recirculation systems will be used.
In addition, two LPG carriers belonging to Tianjin Southwest Shipping will also begin to modify their engines from 2023. According to the previous plan, the next step will be to switch to a dual-fuel engine.
The current trend is that methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen will all become the fuel of choice for marine engines in the future, which meets the new requirements and standards for low-carbon fuels.
Overall, however, low-carbon fuels will not replace conventional fuels immediately, and dual-fuel systems will be the preferred choice for some time to come. On this basis, whether it is the transformation of the old engine or the construction of a new engine, there will be more and more orders from domestic shipbuilding enterprises in the future.
epilogue
But at the same time, it needs to be clearly seen that although the engines we are building are getting bigger and bigger, due to the late start in this field, some patented technologies are still in the hands of foreign companies.
Our enterprise is only some things in the field of manufacturing and production, R&D and design, and we also need to cooperate with foreign enterprises and institutions to promote. Dual-fuel engines, like those mentioned above, have been developed and designed in Europe.
Another example is the exhaust gas recirculation system, whose technology patents belong to MAN Energy Solutions in cooperation with us. As of 2023, 30% of the group's cooperative business comes from the mainland.
Therefore, we should clearly understand that in the new form of ship engine manufacturing, although we occupy the advantages of manufacturing and production, we will gradually grasp the initiative in the field of R&D and design after further breakthroughs and learning in the future.
Only then will our advantages in the field of dual-fuel engines become more comprehensive.
Resources:
"China Shipbuilding Group Releases the World's Largest Marine Dual-Fuel Low-Speed Engine" Xinhuanet, May 26, 2020
"Dual-fuel" transformation of ships is the focus of current maritime decarbonization", China Energy News, August 7, 2023