China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES), the Shanghai-listed shipping giant and daughter company of China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI), has ordered an MAN B&W 7G80ME-LGIM (-Liquid Gas Injection Methanol) main engine in connection with the construction of a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier). The first such dual-fuel methanol order for the ship type, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co (DSIC) will construct the vessel with delivery due by April 2026, according to MAN Energy Solutions's release.
CSE (China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation Diesel Engine Co., Ltd.) will build the engine, which will come accompanied by MAN Energy Solutions’ proprietary EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) emissions system.
The new order follows on the heels of CMES’s recent order for six small-bore, seven-cylinder 21/31DF-M, methanol-burning GenSets in connection with the construction of 2 × 9,300 ceu (car equivalent units) PCTCs, which itself followed an order for two MAN B&W ME-LGIM main engines for the same vessels.
MAN Energy Solutions developed the ME-LGIM (-Liquid Gas Injection Methanol) dual-fuel engine for operation on methanol, as well as conventional fuel. The engine is based on the company’s proven ME-series, with its approximately 8,500 engines in service, and works according to the Diesel principle. When operating on green methanol, the engine offers carbon-neutral propulsion for large merchant-marine vessels. Currently more than 150 ME-LGIM engines are on order or in service, more than 70 of which are G95ME-LGIM Mk 10.5 variants.