Hyundai Heavy Industries unveils marine ammonia engine
By on October 16, 2024
Class approval granted for dual fuel, four stroke engine
Click to learn more. Hyundai Heavy Industries’ HiMSEN ammonia dual-fuel engine, a four-stroke model for marine and land-based applications. Source: HHI.
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has completed class approval testing for its “HiMSEN Ammonia Dual-Fuel Engine” at the company’s Ulsan headquarters. Commercialisation of the H22CDF-LA engine will soon begin, with HHI targeting marine propulsion and onboard power generation, plus land-based power generation applications. Class societies ABS, DNV, Lloyd’s Register, BV, RINA, ClassNK and Korean Register all attended the announcement.
The development of this ammonia engine has great meaning as it will be an opportunity for us to lead the market while providing an expanded eco-friendly duel-duel engine lineup. We aim to enhance our advanced technology and take the lead in the future eco-friendly ship market.
Unnamed Hyundai Heavy Industries representative in the organisation’s official press release, 9 Oct 2024
HHI claims a world-first for its engine, which is fed by a high-pressure direct injection method. Although being more complex, direct high-pressure ammonia fuel injection has a greater power output and fuel efficiency, as well as lower generation rates of N2O. To this point ammonia engines have been based on a “low-pressure premixed combustion method”, which burns a mixture of ammonia and air. This mixture is compressed and fed into the engine.
Extensive testing and optimisation has also reduced ammonia slip and generation of NOX pollutants:
While setting up an optimized fuel spraying time and period to maximize burning rate, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries also utilized the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to minimize the amount of nitrogen oxide and unburned ammonia. In addition, the Integrated Scrubber developed independently by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, has been widely applied resulting in a drastic reduction of ammonia concentrations.
Engine emission details, from HHI’s official press release, 9 Oct 2024
The new engine builds on the success of similar existing models, including the H32DF-LM methanol dual-fuel engine, launched in 2022. The HiMSEN diesel range was launched in 2001.