Wartsila future fuel retrofit platform ready in 2022

Finnish marine technology firm Wartsila said it will be able to start converting two-stroke ship engines to run on alternative bunker fuels from the first quarter of next year.

The first commercial engine conversion using Wartsila's future fuel conversion platform will be completed by the middle of 2023. The platform will initially retrofit engines to run on LNG, and then other alternative marine fuels when they become commercially available. Future bunker fuel candidates include biofuels, methanol and hydrogen-based fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen itself.

Wartsila said engines retrofitted for LNG consumption will have negligible methane slip, which is one of the biggest risks in burning LNG as methane is a significantly more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. The company said it has successfully tested the conversion platform at its engine laboratory in Trieste, Italy, alongside partner MSC Shipmanagement, which is part of the container liner Mediterranean Shipping.

Wartsila is working on a potential dual-fuel ammonia-LNG ship engine as well, and it hopes to have a purely ammonia-burning ship engine ready in 2023. It is also working with Danish shipping company Moller-Maersk on an air lubrication system for vessels designed to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

Wartsila is one of the world's leading manufacturers of scrubbers, which reduce sulphur emissions from traditional bunker fuels. It believes scrubbers could play a part in decarbonising shipping by incorporating carbon capture and storage technology.

By George Collard