Bureau Veritas has added its vote of confidence to Swiss marine power company WinGD’s ammonia fuelled X-DF-A dual-fuel engine, granting an approval in principle(AiP) for the engine’s safety concept. At a certificate ceremony held last week at the Marintec exhibition in Shanghai, representatives of both organisations celebrated the achievement.
The safety concept describes how risks associated with using ammonia as a fuel are controlled under reasonably foreseeable abnormal conditions, as well as possible failure scenarios and their control measures. It is therefore a key element for demonstrating a safe engine room concept and the capability for safe vessel operation using ammonia as fuel.
The AiP comes after confirmed orders for X-DF-A in two bore sizes. The first engine to be developed, the 52-bore X52DF‑A, will be available for delivery from Q1 2025 and is applicable to a range of vessels including gas and bulk carriers. As the industry moves at an accelerated pace towards a carbon-free future, the safety concept AiP is among the necessary steps giving shipowners the assurances they need to move ahead with ammonia-fuelled vessel designs.
X-DF-A engines will operate on the Diesel principle in both diesel and ammonia modes, maintaining the same rating field as WinGD's existing X-engines.