MAN Engines Ordered for New Offshore Installation Vessel

China Merchant Heavy Industry (CMHI) has ordered 6 × MAN 12V32/44CR main engines in connection with the building of a new 5,000-tonne floating installation crane vessel – already christened ‘Les Alizés’ – for Jan De Nul Group.

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

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

Unique features
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.
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.

New generation
Les Alizés’ genesis stems from the global trend within the offshore wind-energy segment for increasingly larger wind turbines. These can be more than 270 meters high – with blades up to 120 meters long – and can be mounted on foundations weighing up to 2,500 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 5,000 tonnes and equally impressive lifting heights – also renders her capable of decommissioning offshore oil and gas platforms.