World Première today for MAN B&W Diesel’s electronically-controlled two-stroke diesel engine, the ME engine

Today, MAN B&W Diesel will present the ME engine, the first in a new generation of two-stroke diesel engines. The presentation will take place at MAN B&W Diesel’s facilities at Frederikshavn, Denmark, in an international arrangement in which some 300 shipowners, shipyard representatives, and other business associates from 29 countries will participate.

The arrangement will culminate with the displaying and testing of the first commercially available version of the ME engine, which is to be installed in a Norwegian chemical tanker owned by the Odfjell Shipowner group.

The engine will be officially started up by Odfjell’s Senior Vice President, Ship Management Jan Didrick Lorentz, together with Kleven Florø Shipyard’s President, Gustav-Johan Nydal, the Mayor of Frederikshavn, Erik Sørensen, and MAN B&W Diesel’s Executive Vice-President, Peter Sunn Pedersen.

Concurrent with the presentation of the ME engine will be technical meetings at which the status of two-stroke engines and the technical aspects of the ME engine concept will be gone through.

With the ME engine, MAN B&W Diesel A/S is introducing a completely new type of ship’s engine in which fuel injection and all other vital parameters are controlled electronically, rather than by a camshaft as done on traditional diesel engines.

"Today sets a new milestone in MAN B&W Diesel’s history. The ME engine is the result of nearly 12 years of research and development. Technically speaking, the ME engine represents an entirely new innovation which can improve fuel oil economy, which is more gentle on the environment, and which is more reliable in operation," says MAN B&W Diesel’s Executive Vice-President, Peter Sunn Pedersen, who continues;

"MAN B&W Diesel is convinced that the ME engine will overtake the conventional engines in the course of the next decade. We anticipate that, in line with the increase in the number of ME engines in service, shipowners with the more conventional engines will see that this engine is the future".

"For shipowners, the purchase of the large ME engines will be cost-neutral - maybe even cheaper. In operation the engine can save money, partly because the fuel consumption is lower at part loads, and partly because savings are made in maintenance", Peter Sunn Pedersen adds.

Sixty engineers, spending 215 man-years, have been involved in the development of this new engine control system, and investments have run into around 100 million DKK. MAN B&W Diesel has developed the necessary electronics, and has programmed the engine’s integrated control system. Since November 2000, prototypes of the ME engine’s components and systems have been thoroughly tested on a 6L60MC main engine on the Norwegian chemical tanker M/T Bow Cecil. This engine has since passed the 10,000 servicehour mark as a 6L60ME engine.

MAN B&W Diesel’s ME engines are available with 50 to 108 cm cylinder diameters, and preliminary orders for ME engines with 50, 60, 70 and 98 cm cylinder diameters have already been placed.