Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2023)

MARINE POWER & FUELS

Bjarne Foldager (left), SVP, head of two stroke business at MAN ES hosted Maritime Reporter in Copenhagen for a look behind the scenes at its ammonia engine test bed & facilities.

MAN ES will start testing on its ammonia engine in Copenhagen in Q1 2023.

engine is designed on the diesel cycle principle because “we calorie out of the ammonia as we can.” In addition to com- believe it is more robust: ammonia is not a hydrocarbon, it pletely burning the fuel for economic reasons, if all of the am- takes a lot more effort and energy to combust it,” said Chatter- monia is not used in the process that means waste that will jee. That said, the biggest hurdle is combustion optimization. need to be handled via aftertreatment. The fuel injectors, in “Typically, we run a number of small tests, 10-15 minutes to particular, are a point of close development and testing, with try something out and then we will change one parameter and close attention on the materials used to facilitate not only op- run again,” said Foldager. timal combustion but lifecycle maintenance. Development

A top concern in any engine development is fuel combus- of the ammonia injectors “is quite a big task. The rest of the tion, from timing to location to angle to amount of fuel spray. engine is identical to a normal engine,” said Foldager. “It’s “The goal is to have an optimal combustion, and for us, the really the top cover with all these extra gas blocks and valves optimal combustion is where we have the highest possible en- and having both the alternative and the normal fuel injectors.” ergy ef? ciency,” said Foldager. “We want to get every single Plan A is a combustion cycle that consumes the full amount 20 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2023

MR #1 (18-33).indd 20 1/4/2023 11:00:17 AM