New MaK Dual Fuel Engine Series
Caterpillar Marine Power Systems recently announce the development of a new MaK M46DF series as a dual fuel engine suitable for electric or mechanical propulsion systems.
Caption: A 6M46DF engine currently undergoing a test program at Caterpillar’s medium speed facility at Rostock, Germany.
Image credit: Caterpillar Marine Power Systems
The M 46 DF dual fuel engine has a 460 mm bore and 610 mm stroke giving a cylinder displacement of 101 liters. As with the existing 430 mm M43C series, the inline models will be available in six, seven, eight and nine cylinders and the vee models in twelve and sixteen cylinder configurations.
The 46DF series is offered with a power output of 900 kW per cylinder at both 500 and 514 rpm engine speeds using liquified natural gas (LNG), marine diesel oil (MDO) or heavy fuel oil (HFO) fuels. It can switch between all three fuels and when operating on LNG, complies with IMO III as well as EPA Tier 4 regulations. In LNG mode, a micro pilot injection of diesel fuel is used to initiate combustion of the gas.
In the development of the M46DF series, special attention was paid to harmonize with the present MDO/HFO MaK43C series, to have the same main dimensions and interfaces such as cooling water inlet and outlet, luboil inlet and discharge etc. This greatly simplifies the substitution of the 46DF engine in possible 43C applications. Another important feature in the design of the MaK DF concept is the possibility to retrofit existing 43C engines to dual fuel operation.
A 6M46DF engine is currently undergoing a full test and evaluation program at Caterpillar’s medium speed facility at Rostock, Germany. Delivery dates of 2014 are being given for the first production DF series engines.
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