Wartsila joins Mitsubishi for engine development

Wartsila has announced a new partner for trials of its new marine engine that is capable of significantly reducing emissions, without restrictions on the fuel specification. The marine engine manufacturer has joined together with Japan?s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to develop the new RTX-4 low-speed research engine. The engine plans to improve reliability, produce greater fuel efficiency, reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and reduce the nitrogen oxides (NOx) content in the exhaust gases by more than 90%.

In March the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed plans to introduce new emission standards that will reduce the engine-out particulate matter (PM) and NOx emissions for new engines beginning in 2009. This excludes the large marine diesel engines known as Category 3, used primarily for propulsion power on ocean-going vessels, such as container ships, tankers, cruise ships and bulk carriers.

The EPA and the IMO plan to target the reduction of NOx emissions from such engines by 15-25%, beginning in 2011. From 2016, these rules would apply to new Category 3 engines and require the use of high-efficiency catalytic after-treatment emission control technology capable of reducing NOx emissions by 80%.

Wartsila is focusing its new engine efforts on possible future changes in fuel quality and emissions regulations. “The research engine can be tested on any type of heavy fuel oil. This is of major importance as research can be undertaken using similar fuels as production engines in actual service,” a company report said.

“It will allow future research into the capabilities of engines to burn even lower grades of fuel oil, should the quality of future bunkers be expected to deteriorate,” the report added.

The RTX-4 research engine is a four-cylinder low-speed two-stroke engine of 600 mm cylinder bore. Initially it develops 10,160 kW at a nominal speed of 114 rpm. The design focuses on the control of exhaust gas emissions and is set up to allow the installation of after treatment technologies, including particulate filters and scrubbers.

The company believes this will allow for possible future stringent marine regulations.

“The engine will serve as a powerful research tool to pave the way for future technological steps. Wartsila is dedicated to improving existing engine designs, to introduce new engines to the market and to explore the technological potential suitable for future market needs,” it said.