Yamal LNG Icebreaker First to Test Wärtsilä 31 Engines

Finnish engineering company Wärtsilä has received the first order for its recently introduced Wärtsilä 31 engines which will power a Yamal LNG icebreaker currently under construction at Russia’s  PJSC Vyborg Shipyard.

The new generation icebreaker Aker ARC 124 will feature three 8-cylinder Wärtsilä 31 engines.

The installation will also include Wärtsilä’s online monitoring of the engines. Wärtsilä says that the first major service required by the Wärtsilä 31 comes only after 8,000 running hours, compared to 2,000 running hours for engines of a similar class.

The ship is being built on behalf of FSUE Atomflot, the enterprise of ROSATOM, Russia’s State Corporation for Atomic Energy.

When delivered, the icebreaker will serve the Yamal LNG project in Sabetta, located northeast of the Yamal peninsular in Russia. The project is one of the largest industrial undertakings in the Arctic.