WinGD engines to run on methanol and ammonia by 2025

Swiss marine engine designer and power system integrator WinGD has revealed that its engines will be able to run on methanol and ammonia from 2024 and 2025 respectively.

As disclosed, WinGD’s multi-fuel solutions will be based on their diesel-fueled X engines and dual-fuel X-DF engines. Both of these series of engines are already compatible with low-carbon fuels – liquid biofuel or biogas respectively, which is expected to provide significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

As one example, the tanker operator Terntank bunkered and operated its X-DF engines on liquefied biogas as long ago as 2018. The full, long-term use of carbon-neutral or zero-carbon fuels is the next step on this pathway.

Furthermore, emissions from WinGD engines can be optimized in line with International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) incoming Carbon Intensity Index (CII) and Energy Efficient Design Index for Existing Ships (EEXI). 

Hybridization of the power arrangement is one option. In line with this, WinGD currently offers system integration services that can maximize fuel efficiency by selecting and sizing hybrid components and the electrical system in parallel with the main engine, the firm noted.

The timeframe for ammonia and methanol capability is part of a wider ambition to grow sales of multi-fueled engines capable of operating on carbon-neutral fuels to 50% of the company’s orderbook by 2030. This is in line with the industry predictions of when these fuels will be available at scale and a viable fuel choice for deep-sea vessels.  

“By 2030, many of the ships that will be sailing in 2050 – the date of IMO’s greenhouse gas emission reduction target – will already have been ordered,” said Volkmar Galke, Director of Global Sales, WinGD “Our clean fuel engine technologies will be available well before then and will be based largely on our current technologies, allowing us to support ship owners and operators in their decarbonisation choices whenever they make them.”

As the shipping industry continues to seek the best possible fuel alternatives, methanol and ammonia are emerging as promising marine fuels on the sector’s decarbonization journey.

So far, WinGD has been investing in new technologies to speed up its decarbonization efforts. This month, the company signed a collaboration agreement with engine builder Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Engine Machinery Division (HHI-EMD)  to develop environmentally sustainable two-stroke engine technology.

Under a joint development agreement signed at the Kormarine 2021 exhibition in Busan, the two companies will together develop engine solutions that further reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from methane while improving both the engine’s efficiency and footprint for reduced costs.