Engine developer Everllence says it has achieved the first operation of a two-stroke marine engine running on ethanol, following testing of its ME-LGIM platform in Japan.

The company said its 90-bore ME-LGIM (Liquid Gas Injection Methanol) engine operated on ethanol at all load points during the testing programme.

Everllence developed the ME-LGIM platform over a decade ago, with the first commercial engine entering service in 2016 within the methanol-carrier segment. The company claims to have more than 225 units ordered for newbuildings and more than 50 engines already in operation across various vessel segments.

Ole Pyndt Hansen, senior vice president and head of two-stroke R&D at Everllence, said: "The past few years have brought steadily growing interest in ethanol from the market. We always do our utmost to listen to these signals and have accordingly been carrying out the necessary design considerations for quite some time; this has provided us with a solid technical foundation."

Hansen added: "With this latest development, we now have the technical know-how from an actual running engine to take us to the next level. Our data confirms our earlier assumption that we could run our ME-LGIM engine on ethanol without issues."

The development follows Everllence's expansion of its dual-fuel portfolio, which includes five dual-fuel technologies in service and an ammonia-powered engine nearing release.

Bjarne Foldager, head of two-stroke business at Everllence, said: "Now we need legislation in place that considers the case of ethanol as a viable fuel source, and we need a requisite market demand. At Everllence, the market speaks and we listen."

Michael Petersen, senior vice president and head of PrimeServ Denmark at Everllence, indicated the testing brings the company closer to offering ethanol as a retrofit product, particularly for S90 engines already equipped with ME-LGIM technology.

"Introducing ethanol capability to retrofitted engines will bring those customers of ours wishing to pursue alcohol-burning engines — as their pathway to IMO-defined net-zero — to a similar technology-readiness and capability as those directly adopting from our existing engine portfolio," Petersen said.

Everllence, formerly MAN Energy Solutions, has over 140 sites globally and provides propulsion and decarbonisation solutions for shipping, energy, and industrial sectors.