MAN Diesel & Turbo receives another order for the MAN B&W ME-GI dual-fuel, two-stroke, gas-injection engine.
Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (Teekay LNG), an offshoot of Teekay Corporation, the international shipping group, has placed an order for two LNG carriers powered by 2 × 2 5G70ME-GI engines, including an option for three further ships. The propulsion solution Teekay has chosen is the most fuel-efficient, low-emission method available on the market.
The ME-GI uses high-pressure gas injection that allows it to maintain the numerous positive attributes of the low-speed engine that have made it the default choice of the maritime community. The ME-GI dispenses with the need for power derating and eliminates the significant problem of methane slip (and resulting CO2 emissions).
The ships will be constructed by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering CO., LTD., (DSME) of South Korea. Teekay LNG intends to secure long-term contract employment for both of the two 173,400 cubic metre LNG carriers prior to their delivery in the first half of 2016.
Unveiled at a major event at MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Copenhagen Diesel Research Centre in May 2011, the ME-GI engine represents the culmination of many years’ work that began in the 1990s with the company’s prototype MC-GI dual-fuel engine that entered service at a power plant in Chiba, near Tokyo, Japan in 1994.
Depending on relative price and availability, as well as environmental considerations, the ME-GI engine gives shipowners and operators the option of using either HFO or gas – predominantly natural gas but also LPG and methane.