Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004 |
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Corporate
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Announcements Marketing - New Products & Services Wartsila launches dual-fuel engines for LNG carriers Amit Mitra
Mumbai Sept. 20 WITH the LNG market in India heating up in the wake of a string of proposed LNG terminals, Wartsila India, a subsidiary of the Finnish major Wartsila Corporation, a leading global supplier of ship power equipment and engines, is launching the company's new model of dual-fuel engines for LNG carriers. Until now, steam turbines have dominated as the cardinal propulsion machinery for LNG carriers the world over, for their apparent reliability and the ease with which they can burn the boil-off gas from the ship's cargo tanks while at sea. Now the trend appears to be a switchover from these engines to dual-fuel engines that can deliver more natural gas to the offloading terminal, even when the gas is used as fuel throughout the voyage. The dual-fuel engines can alternatively run either on natural gas or marine diesel fuel (MDF). An indication of the emerging trend can be had from the fact that Gaz de France, which has placed an order recently for a 1.53-lakh cubic metre LNG carrier, has decided to have dual-fuel engines for its new LNG acquisitions. The ship, which is due to be delivered in 2005, will be deployed to carry LNG from Norway or Egypt. "This is the second of the two similar orders to Wartsila. In 2002, four six-cylinder 50 DF engines, with an aggregate output of 22.8 MW, were ordered for Gaz de France's 75,000 cu.m LNG carrier. Once delivered later this year, Gaz de France will be the first LNG carrier in service featuring the new propulsion system," according to Mr Sanjay Verma, Head-Marine Sales of Wartsila India. The basic tenet of the system is that the propulsion solution for these LNG carriers uses dual-fuel engines for electric power generation. The electric power is supplied to an electric propulsion system, which is fairly similar to the diesel-electric propulsion systems on modern cruise ships. The major benefit of such a system is that it facilitates maximum use of the gas fuel (or the boil-off from the cargo hold of LNG) to develop useful power. "Our calculations show that the earnings of a 1.45 lakh cu.m dual-fuel electric LNG carrier sailing between the Middle East and Japan will be several millions of dollars per year higher than the annual earnings of a steam-turbine powered ship of the same size," Mr Verma told Business Line. Besides this, the new engines have much lower fuel consumption and thus lower operating costs than the conventional steam turbine plant. Further, the dual-fuel engines have comparatively lower stack emissions than their steam counterparts. Wartsila is also launching its latest Sulzer RT-flex50, a low-speed two-stroke marine diesel engine of the crosshead type, which is designed with electronically controlled common-rail systems for fuel injection. Wartsila India had clocked an income of Rs 307.50 crore in 2003, against Rs 108.7 crore in 2002. "We see the Indian market for ship power equipment set to grow in the coming years, especially for small ships and offshore vessels, including drill ships, anchor handlers and seismic vessels," Mr Verma said.
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