MAN rejoins SEA-LNG after four-year absence

MAN told Seatrade Maritime News that its decision to leave SEA-LNG in 2020 was due to a company reorganisation involving budgetary cuts, and that rejoining was a clear priority once it successfully emerged from that process. Parent group Volkswagen came close to selling MAN in 2020, before a restructuring and successful union negotiations led to a commitment to keep MAN in the Volkswagen group for at least four years.

Addressing the hot-button issue of methane slip in LNG-powered engines, where fugitive emissions of powerful greenhouse gas methane escape from the engine, MAN said its two-stroke high-pressure engine technology is one of those delivering "virtually no methane slip" in the LNG combustion process.

The company said it was also making significant progress in eradicating methane slip in its four-stroke engines, halving methane slip in its four-stroke gas engines over the past decade and aiming for a further 20% reduction. Funding has also been secured from the German Federal Government for MAN's IMOKAT II project to develop an after-treatment technology to further reduce methane slip from its four-stroke engines, aiming for a 70% reduction of methane emissions at 100% load.

Stefan Eefting, Senior Vice President and Head of MAN PrimeServ Germany at MAN Energy Solutions, said: “Our unique ability to assess the future-fuel mix is, in great part, based on our dual-fuel engine development, which promotes LNG and other alternative green fuels that have a key role to play on the path to decarbonisation.”
 
Peter Keller, SEA-LNG chairman, said: “The shipping industry’s decarbonisation drive is at a tipping point as global and regional regulations begin to impact shipowners financially. As these regulatory changes continue to be felt, LNG as a marine fuel, and its decarbonisation pathway through liquified biomethane and e-methane, offers the most practical and realistic solution. The LNG solution is playing a critical role in enabling emissions reductions, starting today.  If we want to continue to unlock this pathway’s potential, we need the right expertise and MAN ES’s experience and insights will be critical to ensuring LNG, biomethane and e-methane firmly take their place in the basket of alternative marine fuels.”

Related:New LNG terminals could be designed ‘hydrogen ready’

MAN is an engineering and technology company in the marine, energy, and oil and gas industries best known in shipping for its marine engines and equipment. The company's offerings in the LNG space have applications across dual-fuel LNG-powered ships, LNG carriers, FRSUs, LNG feeder and bunker vessels, as well as for gas supply infrastructure.

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