Dual-Fuel Option At Sea

Wärtsilä will supply the engines for a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) research vessel being built for the German government.

Wärtsilä will also supply exhaust cleaning systems based on selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology and the LNGPac system for complete fuel gas handling. The SCR technology will be needed when the engines are running on conventional marine diesel fuel if the vessel exhausts its supply of LNG. The vessel is under construction at the Fassmer shipyard in Germany and will be owned by Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH), the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency. The contract was signed with Wärtsilä in June 2017.

The new 75 m ship, the Atair, will replace her 30-year-old namesake and will be the first German research vessel operating on LNG fuel. Wärtsilä will also supply the engines and SCR systems for three German Federal police boats to be built at the Fassmer yard.

Wärtsilä will supply two six-cylinder Wärtsilä 20DF dual-fuel engines capable of running on either LNG or conventional liquid fuels, one six-cylinder Wärtsilä 20 engine, two exhaust cleaning systems, a Wärtsilä LNGPac fuel storage, supply and control system.

The Wärtsilä 20 DF engines have bore and stroke dimensions of 200 x 280 mm, and offer ratings of 960 kW (50 Hz) and 1110 kW (60 Hz). The engines will have IMO Tier 3 classification. The company said, since the dual-fuel engines comply with this classification when running in gas mode and all the engines will be compliant when operating on diesel because of the Wärtsilä SCR systems.

Furthermore, the engines will be double elastically mounted to minimize the noise. This special Wärtsilä technique will enable the ship to fulfill the DNVGL classification society’s ‘Silent R’ rating, thus allowing the sonar equipment to be used without disturbance from underwater radiated engine noise.

“Our dual-fuel technology is unique when it comes to small-bore, medium speed engines, and the extended service intervals and economic fuel consumption of the Wärtsilä 20DF engine enable lower operating costs than is possible with high-speed engines. We have worked closely with the Fassmer shipyard and are proud to have once again been selected to supply the machinery and equipment for this important project,” said Lars Anderson, vice president, Engine Sales, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.

“As the new Atair will be the first vessel in our fleet with LNG technology, we rely on the experience and expertise of Wärtsilä with respect to the engines and LNG tank equipment. With Wärtsilä’s dual-fuel and SCR technologies, the vessel will fulfill the IMO’s Tier 3 regulations in all operational conditions, whether sailing on LNG or on diesel fuel,” said Kai Twest, head of Ships and Equipment Division at BSH.

The Wärtsilä equipment is scheduled to be delivered to the yard in mid-2018, and the vessel will enter service in early 2020.

Earlier, Wärtsilä supplied double elastically mounted main engines equipped with SCR’s for the Sonne a deep sea research vessel also owned by the German government.