COSCO pens methanol fuel supply system order for four containerships

China’s COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Technology (Weihai) has signed an order for a methanol fuel supply system for four 16,000-TEU containerships with COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou).

According to COSCO, the methanol fuel supply system “Marine Shield” (Haidun) adopts dual-core redundancy + PID closed-loop control to maintain the stability and reliability of the equipment. Furthermore, the double filter design ensures the engine fuel supply’s reliability.

In line with the characteristics of 16,000-TEU large containerships, COSCO Weihai said it tailored the technical solution featuring decentralised module control and operation parameter integration monitoring to further improve the safety and reliability of methanol refuelling, lightering and supply.

To note, COSCO said that as the solution covers the entire refuelling process, it is the first large project of methanol fuel supply for both the main and auxiliary engines of ships in China.

Back in March this year, Swiss marine power company WinGD announced it will supply 10X92DF-M methanol-fuelled engines to 16,000 TEU containerships to be built for COSCO Shipping Lines at COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry (Yangzhou) site. The vessels are scheduled for delivery from 2025.

According to WinGD, the fourth vessel in the series will be the first to have methanol engines installed from the beginning, while the earlier vessels will initially have methanol-ready X92-B engines installed and will be converted for methanol before entering service.