Wärtsilä EAL propulsion package

The power and propulsion expert is among the first of the major marine propulsion suppliers to achieve this compliance for complete propulsion packages.

Arto Lehtinen, Vice President, Propulsion, Wärtsilä Ship Power, said: “Vessels with VGP-2013 compliant Wärtsilä propulsion solutions will be allowed to operate freely in US coastal waters, as the environmentally advanced systems eliminate the possibility of mineral oil spills into the sea.”

To make the propulsion systems EAL compatible, product modifications have been made to various elements, including the seals, hydraulics and oil monitoring systems. During the process, Wärtsilä has acquired detailed specification knowledge of adapting full hydraulic systems to make them EAL compatible. It has also obtained full intellectual property rights on the newly developed flushed hub solution.

The systems have been extensively tested with Wärtsilä steerable thrusters at the Wärtsilä propulsion test centre in Tuusula, Finland.

The first vessels to be fitted with Wärtsilä’s VGP-2013 compliant propulsion package are four 173m BigRoll MC Class module carriers currently under construction at the COSCO shipyard in Dalian, China. Propulsion equipment will include Wärtsilä main engines, Wärtsilä tunnel thrusters (WTT) and Wärtsilä controllable pitch propeller systems (WCPs).

Wärtsilä can supply VGP-2013 compliancy for newbuild installations. For existing sailing installations, it can perform a feasibility study an individual vessel. In many cases it is possible to retrofit the propulsion installation over to a VGP-2013 compliant system.