Integrated marine systems for the future
The tradition of CIMAC Circles at major marine fairs was continued at Marintec in Shanghai on December 5th 2013. In the light of upcoming emission limits and the challenges of CO2 emission mitigation, the potential of integrated marine systems was presented by the panelists and discussed afterwards.
The panel:
- Stefan Mueller, MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH, Germany (chair)
- Yasuhiro Itoh, Niigata Power Systems, Japan
- JuSeong Han, Hyundai EMD, Korea
- Christoph Rofka, ABB Turbo Systems Ltd., Switzerland
- Willie Wagen, Wärtsilä Propulsion Norway AS
- Karl M. Wojik, AVL List GmbH, Austria
- Prof. Zhongmin Yang, China Classification Society, China
Mr. Mueller welcomed the audience and opened the CIMAC circle with information on the expected development of global trade and growth of marine traffic, an overview of available and coming technologies and led to the topic of the afternoon.
The international emission legislations and their impact on the development of marine diesel engines was presented by Mr Yang of CCS. His presentation was focused on the role of classification societies in the process of development, production and certification of complying technologies.
Mr. Wojik described the system’s optimization as the key to the reduction of emissions, fuel consumption and operating costs. He depicted the means mentioned before by Stefan Mueller, e.g. waste heat recovery and hybridization. Especially for applications with load peaks, like tug boats hybridization seems to be an eligible concept.
The view of an engines manufacturer on opportunities and challenges of future ship propulsion was shown by Willie Wagen. He stated that shipping is the best way to transport goods nowadays. But other means of transportation become more and more sustainable. In consequence shipping must also be focussed on GHG mitigation. Fuel flexibility is one enabler for the use of CO2 saving fuels like gas, bio fuels or hydrogen. Other enablers are smarter ships and fleets, Mr. Wagen said.
Mr. Rofka from the turbocharger manufacturer ABB presented technologies for achieving an energy efficiency gain of up to 10 per cent by using 2-stage turbo charging combined with an extreme Miller cycle. An individual valve control allows this.
Solutions for the integration of gas engines and tanks were shown by Hyundai's specialist JuSeong Han. He presented gas engines as the core of marine propulsion systems, compared different types of LNG tank solutions and pictured the manufacturer's solution for gas fuel supply and gas engines.
A vivid discussion with the audience about the future role of the engine manufacturers began after the presentations: Who is the system integrator for the complex propulsion and energy supply system on board a ship? At the end neither the panelists nor the audience could answer this question. But it is a matter of fact that the relationship between equipment suppliers, engine manufacturers, ship designers and shipyards will change in future due to the new environmental requirements.
