Wärtsilä provides hydrogen blends engines for Keppel O&M

The Finnish technology group Wärtsilä will provide engine generating sets running on a hydrogen and natural gas blend for Keppel Offshore & Marine’s offshore floating testbed in Singapore.

Keppel FELS, a subsidiary of Keppel O&M, ordered the Wärtsilä engines in December 2020.

The ‘Floating Living Lab’ (FLL), the first of its kind, consists of a floating barge with LNG bunkering facilities for harbor crafts and small vessels.

It will also include an embedded power generation system to power Keppel O&M’s operations, with excess electricity to be exported to the national grid or stored in the FLL’s energy storage systems.

The power generation system is to operate on two Wartsila 34SG engines running on natural gas/LNG and having a combined output of 11.6 megawatts.

The Wärtsilä engines can also operate on gas with up to three per cent hydrogen, and with modifications can utilise up to 25 per cent hydrogen.

The engines will be delivered in the third quarter of 2021. The power generation system is expected to be fully operational by the first quarter of 2022.

Tan Leong Peng, managing director (new builds), Keppel O&M, said: “Keppel O&M is leveraging its expertise to optimise energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions for marine vessels by exploring different energy mixes such as blending hydrogen into LNG, and using its Floating Living Lab to testbed these solutions. This is in line with Keppel’s Vision 2030, which includes seizing opportunities in new energy such as hydrogen.”

“The Wärtsilä generating sets will use the boil-off gas from the LNG process for power generation, and will be running in parallel with the grid, energy storage, and solar energy. With the focus being on developing competences for greener fuels, our solutions for incorporating future fuels, such as hydrogen, is gaining solid interest for innovative projects such as this one,” added Nicolas Leong, energy business director, North & South East Asia, Wärtsilä.