Wärtsilä engines for nine Kuwaiti newbuilds

Four Very Large Crude Oil Carriers (VLCCs), one Aframax tanker and four medium range tankers are being built at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in South Korea.

Lars Anderson, vice president merchant, Wärtsilä Ship Power, said: “The choice of Wärtsilä RT-flex engines ensures that these new vessels will be both fuel and energy efficient, and that their emissions will be minimised.”

The VLCCs will be fitted with 7-cylinder Wärtsilä RT-flex 82T engines and a Waste Heat Recovery System, where the exhaust gas energy is utilised to generate steam. This steam is used to operate a turbo generator that produces electricity for the ship.

The Aframax vessel will be powered by a Wärtsilä 6-cylinder RT-flex 58T main engine and the medium range tankers by a Wärtsilä 7RT-flex 50D main engine.

All engines will be built by the Engine & Machinery Division of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, Ltd (HHI-EMD), a Wärtsilä licensee since 1975.

Wärtsilä’s RT-flex common rail engine technology is designed with electronically controlled fuel injection and valve operation. Its benefits include extremely low Specific Fuel Oil Consumption (SFOC) and smokeless operation at all running speeds. The result is significant reduction in exhaust emissions.

KOTC already has two of its vessels fitted with Wärtsilä main engines and four vessels fitted with Wärtsilä auxiliary engines.