QatarEnergy to opt for WinGD engines in next phase
Swiss engine firm, WinGD, is confident that it will secure most of the dual-fuel engine orders for the second phase of QatarEnergy’s giant newbuilding project. Engines and technical specs have already been confirmed for close to half of second-round contracts, the engine company said, and WinGD X-DF2.0 units are already the engines of choice.
WinGD scored well in the first round of contracting last year when shipowners chartering to QatarEnergy booked 25 LNG carriers to be powered by the low-pressure, dual-fuel, two-stroke engines. Based on initial decisions, this number will be exceeded in the second phase, WinGD said.
Since that time, the company has introduced two important upgrades. Last June, WinGD unveiled Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) technology, a hydraulic setup that optimises engine compression ratio, boosting efficiency and cutting emissions depending on the fuel used and the engine load. VCR provides fuel and emission benefits when X-DF engines operate in both gas and diesel modes. The company said that this supports operators’ ability to select the most economically attractive fuel.
Meanwhile, some of the late first-round orders were able to benefit from on-engine ‘intelligent control exhaust recycling’ – iCER – technology. The combustion control system provides another means of boosting efficiency and cutting emissions. In this second contracting phase, iCER technology is available from the outset.
Volkmar Galke, director sales, commented: “QatarEnergy, shipyards, and owners were clear in their endorsement of X-DF in the last round of the project. We are confident that our latest efficiency technologies will allow us to build on that success in the current round. Alongside our well-established engine platform, these technologies have provided a further point of difference for WinGD’s offering, increasing the lead over other engine concepts.”
WinGD’s X-DF engine range has clocked up more than six million running hours since its introduction in 2016. Of the 700 units delivered and on order, nearly 500 are destined for LNG carriers. Twenty of the latest X-DF2.0 units are now in service, with close to 240 on order.
In a recent internal evaluation, the engine company found that two X-DF2.2 engines with VCR outperformed other engine options on a 174,000m3 vessel deployed on a typical operating schedule. The engine was more efficient than other low-pressure and high-pressure engine arrangements in terms of LNG consumption, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, electrical power demand for auxiliary machinery, and fuel costs.
