MAN, Hyundai In Joint Test Venture

MAN Diesel & Turbo said it will build a new test-engine facility in collaboration with its two-stroke licensee, HHI-EMD, the engine and machinery division of Hyundai Heavy Industries.

The new venture aims to expand MAN Diesel & Turbo’s R&D test capacity, in the process strengthening its development of dual-fuel gas engines.

“The testing of our engine technology is an essential part of our continued pursuit of delivering the marine segment’s best two-stroke engines,” said Lars Juliussen, senior manager and head of MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Diesel Research Center, Copenhagen. “This new test set-up will enable us to further advance our pursuit of highly reliable and environmentally-friendly technology with a strong focus on cost-competitive gas engines and related equipment.”

The test and gas facility will be in Ulsan, Korea, at HHI-EMD’s works and is scheduled to begin operation in early 2019. It will be the first test engine with online remote control, supporting MAN’s digitization strategy, the company said. In this respect, the test engine will also be connected to MAN Diesel & Turbo’s research and control center in Copenhagen, enabling the company’s research engineers to closely follow and enhance the testing of future engine technologies.

“This marks a new, exciting chapter in MAN Diesel & Turbo’s long history and we are very happy to work with Hyundai, our long-time licensee,” Juliussen said.

The new test engine set-up will also include MAN Diesel & Turbo’s own ME-GI Pump Vaporizer Unit (ME-GI PVU), which the company said is an innovative cost-efficient high-pressure LNG supply unit that makes FGSS installations significantly more compact and therefore reduces both cost and weight.

The ME-GI PVU is designed to pressurize and vaporize the LNG fuel to the exact pressure and temperature required by ME-GI engines. Gas pressure is controlled via control of hydraulic oil flow to the pump, ensuring a very quick and precise control of the LNG supply to the engine, the company said. Separate control of each pump head provides full redundancy. Furthermore, the ME-GI PVU is governed by a control system – including supervision and safety functions – that include a high degree of integration with the ME-GI engine control system.

The ME-GI PVU was recently launched by MAN PrimeServ, Copenhagen and is available in five different sizes covering MAN Diesel and Turbo’s two-stroke ME-GI engine program.

HHI-EMD, the engine and machinery division of Hyundai Heavy Industries, was founded in 1978, and produced its first marine engine the following year – an MAN B&W 7L55GF type. Based in Ulsan, Korea, the company achieved an aggregate output of 150 million BHP within two-stroke engine production in 2015.