Wärtsilä has received a major order to supply twenty-four Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines to Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd of Korea. These engines will power a series of six 155,000 m3 dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers. Four of these ships were ordered by A.P. Møller of Denmark, while Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (“K” Line) of Japan ordered the other two. The delivery of the first ship of this newbuilding series is scheduled for early 2008. Each ship will be equipped with three twelve -cylinder and one six-cylinder Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines, delivering a total power of 39.9 megawatts. The delivery of these engines from Wärtsilä’s engine factory in Trieste, Italy, will commence in January 2007.
“The intensive cooperation between Samsung and Wärtsilä since 2001 to find innovative solutions for LNG carrier propulsion is finally bearing fruit in the form of concrete orders, and more orders can be expected”, said Mr. CY Kim, Vice President, Design Engineering at Samsung Heavy Industries. “Dual-fuel-electric machinery offers significant efficiency and environmental benefits in comparison to steam turbine machinery. This is the main reason why “K” Line has selected dual-fuel-electric machinery”, said Mr. Joichi Sasaki, Manager, Gas Carrier Technical Team at “K” Line. “The fact that five different ship owners and three different shipyards have now committed themselves to dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers is a strong encouragement to this new concept where obvious financial benefits, especially for ship and cargo owners, are recognized. Therefore we will see many more LNG carrier newbuildings to be ordered with this solution in the years to come”, said Mikael Mäkinen, Executive Vice President and Head of Wärtsilä Ship Power business.
The dual-fuel-electric machinery concept for LNG carriers combines multiple dual-fuel generating sets with electric propulsion and offers a very significant improvement compared to the traditional steam turbine installation in terms of operating economy, exhaust gas emissions and redundancy. At the same time, it keeps aspects like safety, reliability and maintainability at an appropriate level. Crewing of dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers is not problematic either.
Fifty-two Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines have so far been ordered for application in thirteen dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers. In December last year, Wärtsilä received an order from Alstom Chantiers de l’Atlantique of France to supply three twelve-cylinder and one six-cylinder Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines for the 154,000 m3 dual-fuel-electric LNG carrier “Gaselys”, which was ordered earlier that year by Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) of Japan and Gaz de France. Wärtsilä received an order from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd of Korea in November last year to supply eight twelve-cylinder and eight nine-cylinder Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines for a series of four 155,000 m3 dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers. These ships were ordered earlier that year by BP Shipping of the UK.
In December 2003, Wärtsilä received an order from Alstom Chantiers de l’Atlantique to supply three twelve -cylinder and one six-cylinder Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines for the 154,000 m3 dual-fuel-electric LNG carrier “Provalys”, which was ordered earlier that year by Gaz de France. In April 2002, Wärtsilä received an order from Alstom Chantiers de l’Atlantique to supply four six-cylinder Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines for the 75,000 m3 dual-fuel-electric LNG carrier “Gaz de France Energy”.
In addition to these thirteen dual-fuel-electric LNG carriers, Wärtsilä dual-fuel engines have been selected for FPSOs, dual-fuel-electric offshore supply vessels, as well as a large number of onshore power plants.
Media contact:
Marit Holmlund-Sund
Public Relations Manager, Ship Power
Wärtsilä Corporation
Direct tel: +358 10 709 1439
Direct fax: +358 10 709 1425
e-mail: marit.holmlund-sund@wartsila.com
Internet: www.wartsila.com
