OREANDA-NEWS. June 15, 2012. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has launched a project to develop a marine gas engine which is compliant with the International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s Tier III regulations. It will be the first marine main engine to be developed in Japan that is fueled solely by gas and has an output capacity over 2 MW.

The Tier III regulations, due to take effect in January 2016, require marine vessels sailing international waters to reduce NOx emissions in the emission control areas by 80% from Tier I levels. Controls on CO2 and SOx emissions will also be tightened in stages. Kawasaki has decided to develop the new engine to meet rising demand for a main engine that satisfies these regulations.

Prior to the latest project launch, Kawasaki developed a line of gas engines for the distributed power generation market, with application in such areas as small and medium-sized power plants and private power-generation.

These gas engine generators boast the world's highest power-generating efficiency of 49.0% and NOx emissions below 200 ppm (at 0% O2), which is only about 10% of the amount contained in diesel engine emissions. The low NOx level enables these engines to meet Tier III regulations without relying on a DeNOx system. In addition, since gas engines run on natural gas, they release less CO2 than diesel engines, which use Bunker C fuel oil, and only negligible amounts of SOx. 

In developing the new marine gas engine, Kawasaki will leverage the technology it has cultivated through the development of its highly-efficient gas engine generators. The new engine will feature technology that minimizes knocking due to load fluctuations and also support two types of propulsion systems: a direct propulsion system in which the engine is coupled directly with the propeller and an indirect, electrical propulsion system which uses propulsion motors to drive the propeller.

Kawasaki will develop a 2.5 MW (6 cylinders) demonstrator engine within fiscal year 2013, and after obtaining a classification certificate, it will launch a product line in the output range of 2 to 8 MW (5 to 18 cylinders).

 To answer calls for more environmentally friendly marine vessels, Kawasaki will continue to develop new technologies in the field of marine engineering.