Wartsila and MAN join forces to produce clean and efficient marine diesel engines
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Wartsila and MAN Diesel, two world leading European marine engine manufacturers, have agreed to join forces in a research project, called Hercules-B, in order to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. The aim of the project is to reach engine efficiency of 60 percent or more for marine diesel engines. Just as a comparison, automotive gasoline engines operate at an efficiency of approximately 20 percent, while automotive diesel engines reach 30 percent or higher. The majority of diesel engine emissions are currently produced by heavy-duty trucks, while commercial marine transport accounts for a smaller share. However, this balance will shift in the next ten years or so. On-road diesel engine emissions are heavily regulated, which will result in a significant decline. Marine-diesel engine emissions, on the other hand, will not see as significant of a decline, with U.S. DOT Federal Highway Administration projections showing commercial marine engines as the major source of diesel engine emissions by 2020. Wartsila and MAN want to address some of these issues with the four-year Hercules-B project. The targeted budget for the project is 60 million Euro.
[Source: Pressemeldinger Norway]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MikeW 11:15PM (10/17/2006)
Automobile engines are ~25% efficient, diesels are ~33% efficient.
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TDIMeister 3:48AM (10/18/2006)
Sounds like you're both quoting decades-old technology. The state-of-the-art for gasoline engines are already achieving peak brake thermal efficiencies of 33% while for automotive Diesel engines 43%.
Large Diesel engines, like those in industrial and marine applications, have a greater scope for even higher efficiencies because their optimization for a narrower operating range; larger cylinder dimensions; and lower RPM allow for designs with proportionally lower frictional, heat transfer, and non-quasi-static losses.
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MikeW 1:08PM (10/18/2006)
Well put. Maybe Bruno was looking at circa 1956 info.
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Bruno Vanzieleghem 3:16PM (10/18/2006)
I admit that my numbers definitely do not reflect state of the art, but that wasn't my goal.
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