7/17/2020 Engines for gas-fuelled ships - DNV GL

Maritime  LNG as ship fuel

Engines for gas-fuelled

ships
The engine technology to use natural gas as ship
fuel is available today and a wide range of engines
in all power ranges are on the market.

But which engines are the best for changing over to

a gas-fuelled ship? It wasn’t until the year 2013 that
the first gas-fuelled ship, the Fjordline Cruise ship-
like ferry “Stavangerfjord”, started operation
outside Norwegian waters. This was shortly
followed by “Viking Grace”.

One of the main differences between the

“Stavangerfjord” and “Viking Grace” is their
engines: gas-only and dual-fuel, respectively.
Both engine types are four-stroke Otto Cycle
engines, meeting the IGF Code’s requirements
for the “inherently safe” engine room. Both
engine types, dual-fuel and gas-only, differ in
their energy consumption, ignition system and
emissions.

Energy consumption

All of the four-stroke engines available today are

low-pressure engines. The mixture of fuel and air
takes place outside of the cylinder behind the
turbocharger. This means that the fuel gas
pressure is approximately 5 to 6 bar
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pressure is approximately 5 to 6 bar. 
Nevertheless, the pressure is low and therefore
the gas can be provided either directly from a
pressurised storage tank or by use of a
compressor: If a compressor is used, the specific
energy consumption of the compressor is below

1% of the lower heating value of the gas (Hu),

even if 10 bar pressure is required. If the gas has
to be compressed to a high pressure of 300 bar,
the compressor’s specific energy consumption
will be much higher. 

Ignition

The self-ignition temperature of natural gas

stored as LNG is too high to be reached by the
compression cycle in the cylinder. Thus, the
combustion must be initiated by an ignition
source. Engines running only on gas use a spark
plug to initiate the combustion process. The dual-
fuel engines use “pilot fuel” to start the
combustion process. A small amount of pilot fuel
is injected into the cylinder, where it is ignited by
the high temperature of the gas air mixture at the
end of the compression cycle. Typically, the
amount of pilot fuel oil is below 1% of the energy
used by the engine.

Emissions

Compared to heavy fuel oil (HFO), LNG greatly

reduces emissions to air. Because LNG does not
contain sulphur, these emissions are eliminated
completely, complying with ECA regulations. In
terms of NOx emissions, the low-pressure Otto
Cycle engines reduce these by 85% and the high-
pressure Diesel Cycle engines by 40%. Particle
emissions are reduced by 95% and more.

DNV GL evaluated the greenhouse gas emissions

from production to the tank of the ship (Well To
Tank; WTT) and the emissions from the
combustion of the fuel (Tank To Propeller; TTP) in
two studies in 2012. A comparison of emissions
from different fuels indicates that the WTT
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7/17/2020 Engines for gas-fuelled ships - DNV GL

emissions for HFO, MGO and LNG are similar and

small compared to the TTP emissions. The
greatest reduction in greenhouse emissions is
reached by the Diesel Cycle engines, which

reduce the CO2 effect by 26% compared to HFO

– thus, meeting EEDI requirements.

LNG technology LNG as ship fuel report

 Go back to our LNG
technology overview
 Download the full 60-page
report (PDF, 8 MB)

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