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Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd (WinGD) has announced that French shipping line CMA CGM has chosen the company's largest 92-centimetre-bore, dual-fuel low-speed engine to power what are presently the largest containerships ever ordered, and which will be fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The nine vessels ordered by CMA CGM will be built at the yards of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. They are due to enter service in 2020 on routes between Asia and Europe and are designed to have the potential to sail complete Asia-to-Europe voyages on LNG.

The 12 92DF engines will be rated 63,840 kilowatts (kW) at 80 revolutions per minute (rpm), making them the most powerful gas and dual-fuel engines ever built, according to WinGD.

"Given the low NOx emissions of dual-fuel engines using lean burn combustion and the extremely low-sulphur content of natural gas, by choosing our X-DF engines and LNG, CMA CGM is automatically complying with all existing and future emissions regulations," said Volkmar Galke, General Manager of Sales at WinGD.

Ludovic Gerard, Vice President of Owned Fleet at CMA CGM, remarked: "With this move to LNG energy, CMA CGM is moving ahead for a greener shipping. We selected WinGD engines for the main propulsion on the grounds of their experience in dual-fuel engines and our positive feedback on the two-stroke Generation X engines."

"The built-in efficiency of our lean-burn dual-fuel engines is also complemented by the favourable ratio of carbon-to-hydrogen in methane - the main constituent of natural gas - which mean that our X-DF engines are already low emitters of CO2 compared to liquid fuelled engines," Galke continued. "Our X-DF engines are thus an excellent starting point for playing a full part in achieving the 30% improvement in overall vessel efficiency up to 2025 specified by the IMO's Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI)."

In terms of the overall cost of ownership (TCO) of the new vessels, as well as operating expenditure (OPEX), capital expenditure (CAPEX) is also reduced because the emissions levels of WinGD X-DF engines are achieved without the need to install exhaust gas after treatment systems, and by the application of the low-pressure gas admission feature of the X-DF engines, which uses less expensive, more energy-efficient gaseous fuel compression equipment compared with low-speed dual-fuel engines requiring high pressure gas injection. In addition, WinGD's Generation X engines feature a series of designed-in measures which target increased ease-of-maintenance.

WinGD says it has so far received more than 75 orders for X-DF engines since their introduction to the market at the end of 2013. Also, the number of orders received for cargo ships operating on LNG has increased in 2017, with over 25 engine orders received in the year to date.

WinGD's low-pressure dual-fuel technology is offered on all Generation X engines. It is designed to enable the very stable combustion, high fuel efficiency and low noxious and greenhouse gas emissions typical of lean burn gas combustion.

With liquid fuel consumption for pilot ignition below 1% of total heat release and the low sulphur content of LNG, WinGD says it also sees X-DF technology as the ideal solution to the upcoming 0.5 percent global sulphur cap on marine fuels in January 2020.