Swiss
engine designer WinGD, a leading developer of two-stroke low-speed gas
and diesel engines used for propulsion power in merchant shipping, said that
its engines will be able to run on methanol and ammonia from 2024 and
2025 respectively.
WinGD’s multi-fuel solutions will be based on its well-established
diesel-fueled X engines and dual-fuel X-DF engines. The ability to use
zero-carbon or carbon-neutral fuels such as ammonia and methanol in
both of its core engine types will give ship operators flexibility in
how they reduce emissions.
Both
X and X-DF engine series are already compatible with low-carbon
fuels—liquid biofuel or biogas respectively—which can provide
significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. As one example,
the tanker operator Terntank bunkered and operated WinGD 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.
Emissions from WinGD engines can already be optimized in line with
IMO’s incoming Carbon Intensity Index (CII) and Energy Efficient
Design Index for Existing Ships (EEXI). Hybridization of the power
arrangement is one option. WinGD offers system integration services
that maximize fuel efficiency by selecting and sizing hybrid
components and the electrical system in parallel with the main engine.
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. 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
decarbonization choices whenever they make them.
—Volkmar
Galke, Director of Global Sales, WinGD
Headquartered in Winterthur, Switzerland, since its inception as the
Sulzer Diesel Engine business in 1893, WinGD carries on the legacy of
innovation in design.
