Making net efficiency gains of up to 25% is no longer just a pipedream, innovation through developers FUELSAVE means the company can offer ship operators substantial savings on fuel using a dynamic, load-based injection of hydrogen, methanol and oxygen.
Originally designed to work on truck engines FUELSAVE has adapted the technology to the marine environment in particular on medium and high speed four-stroke marine engines for Carnival Cruises and the company is now working on a version that is designed for operation on large slow-speed two-stroke marine units, such as those used on large container ships, Fuelsave founder and president Marc Sima told Container News.
The FUELSAVE MARINE+ system works by reading the load required of the engine at any given time and adjusting the input of hydrogen, methanol and oxygen in different combinations to suit the need for more efficient and cleaner burning of the primary fuel.
“The dynamic injections are able to influence the combustion temperature, flame points, premix phase and ignition timing within the cylinder and to optimise the stochiometric mix for a lean combustion at any load phase, while the engine management system senses that there is sufficient power, throttling down the primary fuel injection,” explained Sima.
In effect the FS MARINE+ “plays around with the flame points” of the fuel, with hydrogen inducing early ignition and methanol delaying ignition, reducing the negative effects of combustion and accentuating the positive effects, explained Sima.
The system works differently from one engine to the next and FUELSAVE will need to make certain that the retrofitted system works efficiently for each unit it is fitted to, but the company will contractually guarantee a 10% fuel saving, but Sima said we have seen much higher fuel efficiencies of above 20% and for some vessels it has been as high as 25%, on four-stroke auxiliary units operating at partial loads.
While the system is proven on four-stroke units the development for two-stroke engines, the major marine polluters, in particular the large container vessels, the system has yet to be developed, however, there are a number of major container operators now interested in taking part in the two-stroke tests.
Engine manufacturers, as well as shipping lines are queueing up to be a part of the development of the next generation of FS MARINE+ units, with Sintef, the Norwegian research body also offering an older two-stroke engine for bench tests for research purposes.
Having a number of choices for the next phase of the development gives FUELSAVE, what Sima calls, “champagne problems”, but with 50% of the world’s fleet as a target market a solution for two-stroke engines is being driven by owners and operators.
“We spent two and a half years testing and validating the four-stroke version of FS MARINE+ on the MV Annette, a heavy-lift crane ship, but I don’t expect the same for the two-stroke version, where we are looking into an installation in 2021 and don’t expect a large scale roll-out before 2022,” said Sima.
His optimism for the system was also strengthened by the announcement from the European Commission that Europe will be carbon neutral by 2050, with the FS MARINE+ system applicable to any fuel, whether it is low sulphur fuel or a biofuel.
“The EC announcement means new clean renewable fuels or drop-in (bio) fuels, but ultimately it means more expensive fuels and we can guarantee net opex savings, helping operators to stay competitive while saving the environment, where owners will want to optimise the efficiency of vessels and have to cope with potentially different combustion characteristics of new fuels, as is the case now with new very low sulphur fuels,” said Sima.
With ships operating on standard fuels causing massive pollution, 15 of the largest vessels can produce the equivalent particulate matter as all the cars worldwide according to FUELSAVE, the drive for pollution mitigation is also important.
However, the overriding issues will be reductions in carbon emissions and FS MARINE+ can offer substantial reductions with significant net savings on fuel, meaning that the return on investment, for some of the larger ships will be as little as one year, depending on the vessel size and the engine type.
Installations can vary in cost from US$500,000 to US$3 million, depending on the size and type of vessel. For a vessel that consumes 10,000 tonnes of fuel a year with bunker intervals of once a month the methanol storage tank capacity is around 25tonnes, while hydrogen is produced on board, on the spot, through electricity from the auxiliary engines, and is used directly as required to avoid the need to store and handle hydrogen.
The economics of the system does depend on global economics, but with cost savings available for whatever fuel an operator uses, the return on investment means that Sima and Fuelsave can guarantee through a bank warranty a certain level of return.
“If we can’t guarantee a return on investment of within three years we don’t make an offer,” said Sima.
Nick Savvides
Managing Editor
