Med Marine Orders MAN 175D for Svitzer Ice-Breaking Tugs

MAN Energy Solutions has won the contract to supply the main propulsion engines for two new ice-breaking ASD tugs, to be operated by Svitzer in the Scandanavian region. Each vessel, rated with 60 tonnes of bollard pull, will be powered by 2 × MAN 12V175D MM, IMO Tier II engines, each rated at 2,040 kWm at 1,800 rpm.

All four engines will be supplied by MAN Energy Solutions directly from its purpose-built, state-of-the-art production facility in Frederikshavn, Denmark to Turkish-based, Med Marine. The vessels are due to enter service by the end-2020.

Esben Grundtvig, Head of Group Newbuilding, Svitzer stated: “We are happy to have the new MAN 175D high-speed engine in our two newbuildings. We are confident that we will have the same high quality as usual from two-stroke and medium-speed engines from MAN. It is important to Svitzer to work closely with key suppliers like MAN Energy Solution to honour our client’s requirements for bollard pull from 60 to 90-plus tons and 1,800-3,000 kW, both with high-speed and medium-speed engines.”

Muhammet Gokhan, Business Development Manager, Med Marine stated: “Med Marine is proud to be building the first series of Tundra 3000 design MED-A3060-ICE class tugboats for Svitzer. In addition to combining Med Marine and Robert Allan’s experience, we are also happy to cooperate with MAN in this project. Equipping the tug with MAN 175D high-speed engines will make this vessel excellently suited for operation with very quick acceleration.”

Lex Nijsen, Head of Four-Stroke Marine Sales – MAN Energy Solutions, said: “Tugs form a special segment with many hours of standby and sudden demands for high loads. This is another, excellent reference for the 175D that adeptly handles the complexity of harbour operations and their strict environmental requirements.”

MAN Energy Solutions reports that – initially – the installed engines will be designated with an IMO Marpol Tier II NOx emissions compliance certificate. However, both vessels’ engine rooms will be designed in such a way that additional MAN-supplied Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) equipment can be installed at a later date, thus raising the vessels compliance to IMO Tier III emissions standard. Key factors that enable this are the compact and modular construction of the MAN Energy Solutions’ SCR components, as well as the MAN175D engine hardware requiring no subsequent modification, making retro-upgrading easily achievable.

Another significant factor considered as important to the success of this installation is the overall life-cycle costs of these modern diesel engines. MAN Energy Solutions believes that the MAN 175D is amongst the most fuel-efficient, high-speed engine available for marine propulsion. Coupled with this, the low cost of maintenance during the operational lifetime of the engines makes them a very competitive option for tug owners and operators to consider.