For the purposes of the event, the company rebuilt its 50MX test engine to an ME-LGI unit.Søren Jensen, vp and head of R&D, said: ‘Attendees showed great interest in the demonstration and the accompanying technical presentations; their feedback has been very positive.”’
He further explained: "A number of years ago we identified the need to develop an engine that could run on more environmentally-friendly, competitively-priced fuels as an alternative to MDO/MGO. We believe the ability of the ME-LGI engine to run on sulphur-free fuels offers great potential. Methanol carriers have already operated at sea for many years. With a viable, convenient and economic fuel already on-board, exploiting a fraction of the cargo to power a vessel makes sense."
To date, MAN Diesel & Turbo has received orders for seven ME-LGI engines – a mixture of 7S50ME-LGI and 6G50ME-LGI variants – from MOL, Marinvest and Westfal-Larsen. The first engine will be produced by MES for a vessel currently under construction by Minaminippon Shipbuilding Co for MOL.
MAN Diesel & Turbo has previously stated that it is already working towards a Tier-III-compatible ME-LGI version that can meet IMO NOx limits with the aid of secondary measures. Methanol as a ship fuel is interesting for ship operators because it does not contain sulphur and is liquid in ambient air conditions, which makes it easy to store aboard ships. For ships operating in IMO Emission Control Areas (ECAs), methanol is a solution to the demands of sulphur-emission legislation.A further advantage of methanol is its ability to be stored in normal, unpressurised tanks, making it straightforward to transport. As delivery by train, truck and/or ship is already in place in many areas globally, establishing and expanding the existing methanol infrastructure is perfectly feasible, even for individual ships operating in remote areas.
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