MAN Diesel Upgrade Packages Ordered for Odfjell Tankers. MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Propeller & Aft Ship organisation has won an order to retrofit and upgrade a series of 11 × 37,500 dwt vessels from the Odfjell chemical tanker fleet. The vessels are of the Kværner Class and are due to dock during 2015-17, at which time the upgrades will be implemented. The first vessel, ‘M/T Bow Clipper’, will dock and be upgraded in August 2015.
Each vessel has an MAN B&W two-stroke engine powering a four-bladed, controllable-pitch propeller and a PTO-driven shaft alternator. The vessels’ new service speed at reduced main-engine output – combined with the implementation of MAN’s highly-efficient Kappel propeller blades, a fairing cone and a pre-fabricated rudder bulb kit – will all contribute to power savings and reduced exhaust-gas emissions.
The Kappel blades, fairing cone and rudder bulb are designed and customised for the tanker’s hull and rudder designs. The calculated power saving has been verified by tank-test analyses at MARINTEK (Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute) as reported in preliminary results.
“It’s a very exciting project and we are proud to be part of it. With our new design possibilities, we are furthermore looking forward to offering this fuel-saving concept to other fleets with similar operational patterns,” said Kjartan Ross, Business Development Manager of MAN Diesel & Turbo’s Propeller & Aft Ship organisation. He continued: “With the long lifetime expectancy of Odfjell’s high value, quality vessels, this upgrade investment is straightforward and very attractive”.
