WinGD Reports Ammonia Engine Progress Targeting First Deliveries in June
The competition to deliver the first ammonia-fueled engine continues to report progress with Swiss-based WinGD now reporting it expects to complete final validation in time for the first engine deliveries in June 2025. After achieving results with a single-cylinder in line with expectations, the company says in the coming months it expects to conduct multi-cylinder engine tests to validate the full-scale engine, turbocharger configuration, and control systems so that the engine can begin production.
“The single-cylinder X DF A concept is running well, with combustion efficiency, emissions, and pilot consumption within our range of expectations,” reports Sebastian Hensel, WinGD Vice President Research & Development.
The company highlights that the single-cylinder testing will allow rapid validation of the ammonia combustion system under engine conditions, as well as the optimization of emissions and performance. It will also verify the engine safety concept on the test engine.
WinGD, which is owned by China CSSC Corporation, reports it began its dedicated ammonia development program in 2019. In 2022, the project progressed to experiments using WinGD’s spray combustion chamber and that was followed by a deep investigation of key engine components on the test rigs housed within the company’s Engine Research and Innovation Center (ERIC)’s Future Fuels Lab in Winterthur, Switzerland.
According to the company, its X-DF-A platform is based on the diesel-cycle cpncept that has been well-established for several decades with its diesel-fueled engines. Among the efforts have been the development of new technologies to inject and burn ammonia efficiently while also controlling and minimizing emissions.
“In previous tests, we verified that SCC results were transferable one-to-one to the results on our test engines,” reports WinGD Head of Testing and Validation Sotiris Topaloglou. “As a result, we are in a strong position to make rapid progress through validation of our ammonia technology.”
The company had previously completed testing of the ammonia fuel injectors on test rigs to validate the functional, mechanical behavior, and reliability on a multi-cylinder methanol engine at 100 percent load. They report this permitted testing of the ammonia injection concept under harsh engine conditions and thermal stress before testing with ammonia.
WinGD reports it has nearly 30 orders for X DF A engines in the bulk carrier, containership, tanker, and LPG/ammonia carrier segments. The first engines will be built for four LPG/ammonia carriers owned by Exmar LPG and ten bulk carriers operated by CMB.Tech.
Other engine manufacturers are also reporting progress in their efforts to complete the verification of ammonia-fueled engines. MAN Energy Solutions reported in December 2024 that it had commenced testing of a full-scale, two-stroke engine running on ammonia at its Research Centre Copenhagen. MAN said it had completed more than 12 months of testing on a single cylinder running on ammonia. MAN is focusing on elements including combustion and emissions, engine-tuning, atomizer testing, and control-system verification which it expects to continue till mid-2025.
Wartsila has also reported progress with its single-cylinder engine testing and efforts for a multifuel engine. It has also previously said that it expects the first ammonia engines to be delivered in 2025.