RINA moves towards zero emission engines

Italian classification society RINA has type-approved a device which represents a significant step towards the ?almost zero emission engine? for passenger and

cruise ships. The system, known as Turbotransducer, was developed by Italy’s

Mec System s.r.l. and applies micro-emulsion technology to marine diesel engines to deliver significant reductions in smoke visibility and NOx emission without increase in fuel consumption.

“We focused on our target to provide the basis for an ?almost zero emission? cruise ship or ferry more than three years ago,” says RINA’s corporate affairs & communication manager Mario Dogliani. “We are pleased to share with our partners the satisfaction of taking a major step towards achieving our goal.”

The micro-emulsion technology approved by RINA produces a micro-emulsified fuel, using HFO and demineralised water to feed the diesel engines. The fuel is composed of homogeneous micro cells with a diameter of between 0.10 and 0.50 microns formed of water enclosed in a film of organic liquid fuel. “One of the problems in obtaining a micro-emulsified fuel is to make it stable,” explains Ernesto Marelli, Mec System’s CEO and owner. “This type of technique has been in use since 1980 in power plants ashore but has never yet been marinised reliably. We now believe Mec System has overcome all the

technical problems, and we have proven that it works and provides benefits working with the four-stroke engines typically used on board passenger ships.”

In this new system a special device, the Turbotransducer, processes combustion fluids through inverted flow coaxial cavitation chambers activated by magneto-mechanic structures designed to specific mechanical criteria. Fuels, waste or even sludge compounds and water are combined to build a single fuel. Fluids flowing through the Turbotransducer are instantaneously combined and reach the engine as a stable and very homogeneous micro-emulsion due to the very high atomisation and fluid acceleration achieved in the Turbotransducer.

Tests on board ships as well as at the work bench ashore (totalling some 500 running hours) have been carried out by Mec System, RINA, Wartsila and other partners within a pan-European R&D project aimed at identifying technologies and reference standards for low-emission passenger ships.

The atomised-stabilised micro-emulsion technology, together with some adjustments in certain components of the engines to best exploit it, proved to be straightforward in terms of retrofitting, and very efficient. Based on this, RINA developed a certification scheme specifically geared to existing ships (although applicable to newbuildings as well) named IET ?Innovative Environmental Technologies?.