MTU validates high-speed gas engine

The sixteen-valve MTU 4000 engine has completed 3,000 hours on the test bench and, as reported, will be delivered to customer from 2018, when it enters series production.

Ulrich Dohle, CEO of Rolls-Royce Power Systems, said: “We can now confirm that the engine meets both our requirements and those of our customers. Its performance and its acceleration behaviour are similar to the excellent characteristics of a diesel engine. It is economical, reliable and clean.”

The spark-ignition, lean burn combustion engine – which complies with IMO Tier III NOx limits without exhaust aftertreatment – covers a power range from 1,500-2,000kW and is based on the proven sixteen-valve MTU 4000 M63 diesel engine for workboats. It features a multipoint, indiivdual cylinder gas injection system designed to provide the engine’s dynamic acceleration behaviour, increased performance and reduced emissions. A dynamic motor management system and advanced single-stage turbocharger are also integral to the design.

In late 2017 the first series engines will be used to power a tug built by Damen Shipyards for towage and salvage company Svitzer, who have entered into collaboration with MTU to jointly put the world‘s first tug powered by high-speed gas engines into service.

Following the launch of the sixteen-valve version, the MTU 4000 gas portfolio will be supplemented by an eight-cylinder model with a power range of 750-1,000 kW. From 2019 the engine will provide propulsion for a new Lake Constance ferry operated by the local public utility, Stadtwerke Konstanz, which will ply between the two Lake Constance towns of Constance and Meersburg.

Rolls-Royce noted that the dynamic acceleration behaviour, low environmental impact, reliability and economy of the new gas engine makes it ideally suited to tugboats, ferries, push boats and special purpose vessels including research ships.

Rolls-Royce will be presenting the new engine at SMM in Hamburg on 6-9 September (hall 3A, stand 305).