Page 47: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2022)

WABTEC

Image courtesy Reinauer Transportation ffering a power solution that is proven across in- dustries, and compliant with the highest environ- mental regulation with the bonus of accomplish-

Oing this without the extra cost and hassle of a urea treatment system would seemingly make Patrick Webb’s job

TUG easy. But seemingly that’s not the case.

“There’s confusion around EPA Tier 4 emission require- ments and decarbonization,” said Webb, a maritime industry

JOSEPHINE veteran who serves as Wabtec’s Global Senior Sales Direc- tor, Marine, Stationary and Drill Group. “Where the EPA is

HAS A PAIR focused on lowering pollutants that cause serious health is- sues, the media seems to be focused on lowering carbon. Also,

OF 6L250s there is very little real availability of different renewable (fuel sources) across the US and around the world.”

Webb and his team at Pennsylvania-based Wabtec are eager to share the story of the company’s medium speed, EPA Tier 4 compliant engine, which today has more than 100 engines installed in vessels, representing an aggregate of more than 1,000,000 cumulative hours running. “Wabtec has an awe- some, proven solution that allows vessels to operate at the ex- treme EPA Tier 4 emission level, without any need for urea, but many customers are still ? ghting to try and ? nd ways to avoid this emission standard,” citing recent examples where operators – commercial and government – choose to install a larger number of smaller horsepower engines to effectively circumvent Tier 4 emission standards. “There is a lot of talk about cleaner emissions, but behind the scenes, there has also been efforts to avoid cleaner emission and the perceived cost and hassles of this next level of emission control.”

Despite the challenges, Wabtec has enjoyed measured suc- cess in recent years. “Wabtec Marine Diesel has transitioned and high-pressure fuel injection. It’s about fuel ef? ciency from a near 0% market share in the U.S. before EPA Tier 4 too, and its impact on the total cost of ownership.” While the rules came out,” said Webb. “Six years later, the Wabtec Tier Wabtec team is quick to admit that the 250MDC is not the 4 Marine Diesel has captured nearly 50% of these new engine cheapest engine on the market, according to Hart. When all is sales in the 1.7MW to 4.5MW powerband. This success is in taken into consideration there is a payback period of approxi- large part associated with the fact that Wabtec Marine Die- mately 18 to 24-months.

sel is the only engine of its type that can achieve the strictest In addition to the hardware, Wabtec has built into the engine emission standards with no need for urea.” a sensor array that is common for its rail customers, and is now starting to make headway in the marine industry. “These are digital engines,” said Hart. “That comes with increased

THE ENGINE

The L250/V250MDC diesel engines from Wabtec meet capability for onboard diagnostics on the Tier 4 engine, there’s

U.S. EPA Tier 4 and IMO Tier III emission standards with improved diagnostics because of all the sensors that are re- advanced exhaust gas circulation (EGR) and without the need lated to Tier 4 emissions control.

to use urea. The omission of urea is a particularly important According to Hart, the rail industry is more advanced in the designation. “The Wabtec advantage with its Tier 4 engine collection and use of data, with modems on the locomotives starts with the fact that there is no urea needed, meaning that that continuously stream data. “We have a global performance you don’t have to allocate the space for the extra equipment optimization center that collects that data and sends out rec- needed for the tanks and storage of urea; and also, from the ommended actions. It’s a little bit of a different service struc- cost of ownership,” said Matthew Hart, Platform Leader, ture in the locomotive space, but we’re looking at how we can

Marine & Stationary Power Systems, Wabtec. “The Tier 4 expand that on the marine side.” 250MDC product is EGR-based, with increased robustness He noted that data connection on the marine side is the designed into the power assembly, two-stage turbocharging tough part. “Vessels operate everywhere, and a lot of times www.marinelink.com 47

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