MethOpt: methanol-diesel dual fuel injection optimisation

In the MethOpt project, the research centre Sustainable Industries will combine its expertise in methanol as a fuel for internal combustion engines with the maritime logistics-economic expertise of the Higher School of Shipping and field partners with knowledge of exhaust gas aftertreatment systems. Together, they will optimise a retrofit methanol injection system towards achieving a positive economic impact for the inland shipper.

Throughout the maritime transport sector, but especially in inland navigation, there are increasingly stringent environmental and health requirements. In recent years, for instance, the sector has faced several tightening regulations: the NRMM Stage-V regulations, elaboration of LEZs for inland vessels and the Mannheim Declaration where the agreement was made to reduce inland shipping emissions of both greenhouse gases and environmental pollutants by 35% by 2035 compared to 2015.

To meet these standards, there are currently two common solutions:

1. Installation of a new Stage-V engine.
2. Installation of a retrofit aftertreatment system.

Problem definition

Retrofitting raises the question of whether a return on investment can be achieved. The H2020 project PROMINENT1 shows that investments in exhaust gas aftertreatment (SRC and SCR and DPF technology) for several representative journeys in the Rhine or Danube region are not recovered in any of the business cases studied. As a result, the investment and increased maintenance cost for a retrofit aftertreatment system and/or a new engine with exhaust aftertreatment systems is too high for inland shippers.

Economic impact

The positive impact of methanol as a main fuel or dual-fuel, on emissions in diesel engines, has been demonstrated several times in previous research. Always the focus is on maximum emission reduction without considering the economic impact. Without demonstrating this economic benefit, alongside the ecological one, many of these solutions end up not getting implemented.

Emission reduction

MethOpt puts the focus of the research not on a system optimisation towards maximum emission reduction, but on an emission reduction focused on technical feasibility and economic added value for the inland skipper. The potential economic benefits range from fuel savings, reductions in berthing costs in ports, lower entrance fees to low-emission zones, as well as a purchase, installation and maintenance cost reduction of retrofit after-treatment systems. By coupling the data from emission measurements on the research centre's state-of-the-art engine test bench with an economic cost/batch simulation, an optimal economic methanol injection strategy is determined.

Researchers

• jonathan.put@kdg.be
• ben.roels@kdg.be
• kristof.ceustermans@kdg.be