MAN Engines For Super-Sized Crane Vessel

China Merchant Heavy Industry (CMHI) has ordered six MAN 12V32/44CR main engines for a new 5000-tonne floating installation crane vessel for Jan De Nul Group, an international maritime construction expert.

The vessel, the Les Alizés, underscores a global trend within the offshore wind-energy segment for increasingly larger wind turbines. These can be more than 270 m high – with blades up to 120 m long – and can be mounted on foundations weighing up to 2500 tonnes: dimensions that current offshore installation vessels have trouble installing.

Les Alizés will be in a super-size class of its own, capable of building the next generation of offshore wind farms but whose crane – with a lifting capacity of 5000 tonnes and equally impressive lifting heights – also renders her capable of decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms.

The MAN engines deliver a cumulative output of 43 200 kW and the common-rail engines will each feature an enhanced, MAN-supplied SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system for IMO Tier 3-compliance, and will also meet the even-stricter Euro Stage 5-compliant NO_x-emission limit. The enhanced NO_x-reduction rate is essential for the newbuilding to fulfill the exacting ULEV (Ultra Low Emission vessel) standard for better air quality, characterized by very low NO_x and particle emissions.

The ship will be built at CMHI’s shipyard in Jiangsu province, eastern China, and is scheduled for delivery in 2022.

“The MAN 32/44CR’s robust design is proven across many applications and I’m very happy to see it chosen again for such an exciting project,” said Lex Nijsen, head of Four-Stroke Marine Sales – MAN Energy Solutions. “MAN Energy Solutions has previously worked with Jan De Nul Group on many of its vessels and recently provided four 12V32/44CR engines to CMHI for a major semi-submersible project. We look forward to working with our partners again in the commissioning of such a noteworthy vessel that truly begins a new era for the offshore installation sector.”

Jan De Nul Group is a world leader in dredging and offshore technology and operates a modern and versatile fleet of dredging and offshore-installation vessels that currently features over 90 MAN engines.

MAN Energy Solutions states that several of the 32/44CR’s unique features were important in it being chosen for the project.

Accordingly, the engines will be delivered with the company’s ECOMAP feature. The CR-system’s flexibility permits the engine to be programmed to run along different fuel-consumption-versus-power characteristics, with each having its efficiency optimum at a different load point.

MAN said another key 32/44CR characteristic is that high engine-output is available even at high ambient temperatures, as well as at the high exhaust-gas back-pressures resulting from the extensive exhaust-gas treatment equipment, which is mandatory for the ULEv notation.