Maersk’s newly ordered boxships to run on MAN ES methanol engines

German engine manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions (MAN ES) has received a ‘major order’ to deliver dual-fuel methanol engines for six 17,000 TEU containerships being built for Danish integrated logistics company A.P. Moller – Maersk.

According to MAN ES, South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) ordered six MAN B&W G95ME-C10.5-LGIM dual-fuel main engines for the construction of the six methanol-powered vessels ordered by Maersk.

Hyundai’s engine machinery division (HHI-EMD) will build the engines in Korea, which were developed in response to interest from the shipping world in operating on alternatives to fuel oil in order to reach decarbonisation targets.

Bjarne Foldager, Senior Vice President and Head of Two-Stroke Business, MAN Energy Solutions, said: “The adoption of methanol propulsion is gaining pace, behind which there are several drivers. Crucially, MAN B&W methanol engines are available and proven with the first engines having already entered service back in 2016.

“Additionally, as a fuel, methanol can be carbon-neutral when produced from renewable energy sources and bio-genic CO2. The production capacity of such green methanol is currently increasing significantly; it is also liquid at ambient conditions, which simplifies tank design and minimises costs. Finally, our methanol engine only require a fuel-supply pressure of just 13 bar and a number of manufacturers already offer such fuel-supply systems today.”

Thomas S. Hansen, Head of Promotion and Customer Support at MAN Energy Solutions, added that the company currently has a total order book for 78 ME-LGIM engines, of which 24 are firm orders for G95-variants.

“In addition, 19 of our 50-bore variants are already on the water and have accumulated more than 140,000 running hours on methanol alone. As a fuel, the future looks promising for methanol and we fully expect its uptake to encompass around 30% of all dual-fuel engine orders in just a few years from now”, Hansen concludes.

Last month, the company secured a type approval certificate for its four-stroke 32/44CR medium speed marine engine from DNV.

This presented a step forward in MAN ES’ efforts to meet the growing demand for methanol as one of the marine fuels of the future.

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