WinGD, Samsung Heavy Industries partner to develop fuel applications

Swiss marine power company WinGD and shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) have agreed to cooperate on future fuel vessel applications with ammonia-fuelled engines.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed this week at the Gastech conference in Singapore, reveals SHI’s firm determination to install WinGD’s X-DF-A dual-fuel ammonia engines on next newbuild vessels.

The collaboration will entail adapting the X-DF-A for integration with larger ammonia fuel systems and auxiliary machinery on a variety of vessel types such as oil tankers, containerships, and ammonia carriers.

The project adheres to WinGD’s previously stated timeline of putting X-DF-A ammonia engines into operation in Q1 2025.

Haeki Jang, CTO, Samsung Heavy Industries, said: “Working with WinGD to prepare its ammonia engines for integration with newbuild projects in key vessel segments will ensure that SHI can offer customers the future fuel vessel solutions they need to meet their decarbonisation targets.”

Volkmar Galke, Director Sales, WinGD, added: “This collaboration offers WinGD the opportunity to participate in the future fuel preparations of one of the world’s biggest and most respected builders of high-quality vessels.

“The aim is to prepare engine and vessel designs as well as fuel system integration specifications that will lead to X-DF-A engines being deployed on a wide range of SHI-built, ammonia-fuelled vessels.”

Later this year, WinGD plans to begin testing its ammonia-fuelled engine idea on single and multi-cylinder test engines in Winterthur and Shanghai.

In June 2023, WinGD, and Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. signed a MoU to enter into a partnership on ammonia-fuelled vessels.

That same month, WinGD and Japanese Mitsui E&S DU Co (MESDU), developed a Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) that enables compromise on optimal combustion when using multiple fuels for ship operators.