OEMs develop methanol and hydrogen workboat engines

Development partnerships

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is developing dual-fuel and single-fuel versions of its 25-30 litre engines for large tugs, workboats, offshore support and inland vessels. These developments, in partnership with Koedood and Storm Group’s ScanDiesel, are aimed at gensets for vessels needing to comply with stringent environmental regulations, such as the European Union’s Stage V.

These partners are working on four projects, says Mitsubishi Turbocharger and Engine Europe general manager Morten Brix. For methanol, this involves developing and testing dual-fuel engines with Koedood and Storm, enabling the use of diesel until green fuels are ready.

“The single cylinder engine test cell was ready in July 2024 at MHI’s research facility in Japan, while the plant is building a multi-cylinder test engine in 2024,” says Mr Brix.

Another project with Koedood involves building and testing hydrogen-powered engines. This started with a single-cylinder engine “to get experience with how hydrogen performs with the engine,” explains Mr Brix. “With this data, we started building a multi-cylinder engine, which will be completed in July 2024.”

This will be calibrated in Q4 2024 and delivered to Koedood in December, ready to be included in a genset and installed on a vessel in 2025. It does not need any SCR as hydrogen goes in and water comes out. MHI is developing the engine control system.

In a third project, MHI is developing a dual-fuel hydrogen engine for a genset for installation on a vessel by 2025 as part of a green shipping initiative.

A fourth projects involves developing an LNG monofuel engine with DNV class and port-fuel injection. This engine was completed in Japan this year and MHI is working on the control and monitoring system.

Mr Brix says these will be used by vessels requiring low-emissions high-speed gensets able to burn diesel until green fuels are available. Power outputs of these engines would be 500-600 kW at three speeds, 1,200 rpm and 1,800 rpm for generating AC at 60 Hz and 1,500 rpm for 50 Hz. These could be applied as marine propulsion engines in tugs and workboats with four gensets in an electric propulsion system instead of two engines. Mitsubishi engines are already approved to use HVO fuel.

German OEM

MAN Engine has introduced a power-dense MAN D3872 engine, with a modular exhaust-gas aftertreatment system for EPA Tier 4 and IMO Tier III-compliant workboats. This 30-litre four-stroke engine has a significant increase in displacement compared with its well-proven, 24-litre MAN D2862 series, expanding its four-stroke portfolio to meet workboat applications that require additional power and torque.

At SMM, MAN first displayed the high-speed LE432 variant of the new series delivering 1,213 kW at 2,100 rpm for medium-duty applications.

Further power variants of the MAN D3872 for light-duty applications with 1,618 and 1,471 kW are also available, with additional engines in the series planned.

Based on a new engine platform that was inspired by the proven MAN D2862 V12 engine series, the new MAN D3872 engine has an injection pressure of 2,200 bar and the new MD1+ engine control unit to optimise the engine, resulting in low fuel consumption and emissions.

MAN Engine set out to develop high power density, and the most powerful variant, D3872 LE433, achieves an impressive 1,618 kW at a dry weight of just 2,720 kg. The engine designer was able to achieve this increase in power without going much beyond the footprint of the smaller 24-litre MAN D2862 V12 engine; at 2,335 mm, its length is just 100 mm longer than the D2862 and its connection dimensions are identical. This compact configuration lends itself to the tight constraints of workboat enginerooms.