New engines developed for US inland waterways

Further developments 

Caterpillar will continue to develop other engines, auxiliaries and gensets used in the tug, towage and inland waterways sectors. “For several years, we have upgraded engine platforms for clients, providing more data connectivity, including electronic controls, extending maintenance intervals and using data to optimise maintenance,” says Mr Sarrat. “Some of our platform developments are coming to commercial release as we work on improving existing engine platforms.”

These developments will be ideal for vessels operating along North American waterways, where engines need to deliver power over long periods. “Vessels must continue to deliver the power required for exceptional performance as uptime, dependability, cost-efficiency and safety are paramount,” says Mr Sarrat.

Power solutions that help operators reduce maintenance costs and downtime will enable them to be adaptable as customers’ sustainability goals evolve.  

“Extending the time between overhauls creates compelling competitive advantages that allow operators to increase a vessel’s time on the water, enabling operators to win more business. Reducing those maintenance costs supports an operator’s profitability,” Mr Sarrat adds. “Having the flexibility to operate on biofuels can also support profitability as that allows operators to take on jobs with that specification they otherwise wouldn’t be able to support.”

Caterpillar has been running some C32B engines on an inland towboat for the last five years as part of this development project and has seen successful outcomes. “We have the engines hooked up with our full digital suite of telematics connected so we are able to monitor all aspects of vessel operation during this trial period,” says Mr Sarrat. “And what we have seen has been very encouraging. The C32B’s are operating beautifully and have shown improved efficiency and durability over the current C32, and this has allowed us to push the major maintenance overhaul intervals by as much as 50% to date.” 

Service agreements

For operators and owners of tugs, towboats, pushboats and other workboats, Caterpillar dealers provide service packages that can include real-time remote monitoring of engines and auxiliaries by experts that understand these products and the demands on vessels, facilitating optimal maintenance.

“Our dealers can use product status reports, connect to the engines and download data on engine operations over their lifetime, whether this is data for the last day, week or month,” says Mr Sarrat. “They can look at average load factors and fuel burn, sample reports and track what is going on inside an engine. Perhaps there will be high levels of metals, which would show there could be issues, such as bearing wear, and indicate where and when maintenance is needed.”

This information is useful to operators as it could prevent issues becoming incidents or cause accidents or equipment failures, which could lead to vessel downtime or operational problems.

Digitalisation has become an important element to these service agreements and can be supported by Caterpillar’s remote monitoring and expertise centre in Houston, Texas.

“Assets can be connected for remote monitoring and we can use predictive analytics to catch issues before they turn into vessel downtime,” says Mr Sarrat. “Customers can use these digital services to fine-tune operations and understand when to do maintenance. We have people on shore monitoring and provide troubleshooting based on condition and performance information.”  

Under certain service agreements, a Caterpillar fleet manager will work with owners, operators, port engineers and vessel captains for equipment health management and maintenance programmes and to optimise vessel operations and schedules.  

“They would review service history and consider what is coming up in terms of drydockings, to align maintenance, reduce downtime and extend maintenance intervals,” says Mr Sarrat.

“Engine overhauls can be planned for when a vessel goes into drydock for regulatory reasons, so all work gets done at once.”

For large fleets with more than 100 engines and vessels, this could lead to considerable cost savings. “We see significant savings in yearly operations from sharing maintenance information and operational data,” he continues. “Experts are finding issues before they become problems, advising customers to look at performance versus overhaul and finding significant savings of millions of dollars over a year.”

Engine replacement

When it comes to repower projects, there are various drivers for investing in new engines, such as getting another 25 years out of a vessel, moving up to EPA Tier 3 for regulatory purposes, or if there is space for SCRs to Tier 4, or reducing fuel consumption.  

“The recipe for repower can go a number of different ways,” says Mr Sarrat. “Regulatory push is getting people to engage in repowers for vessels operating in certain areas where that is required. “Other reasons are efficiency, age and fuel consumption. There are grants for using batteries and alternative fuel solutions, such as methanol engines that are under development. We are getting close with our Cat Marine battery development. There are different offerings for a repower.”

All repowers include replacing or upgrading wheelhouse panels, telematics and controls as well as the engines and auxiliaries. “Our repower projects open doors to optimising maintenance, operations, fuel savings and reducing emissions,” says Mr Sarrat.

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