Maersk Vessel First with New Waste Heat Recovery System

April 13, 2016

Now in operation on board a Maersk Line ship, the Arnold Maersk, is a newly developed Hydrocurrent Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) Module 125EJW waste heat recovery system from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Marine Machinery & Engine Co., Ltd. (MHI-MME).

The Organic Rankine Cycle is similar to a steam cycle except that it uses an organic fluid in place of water. The organic working fluid, which has a lower boiling point and higher vapor pressure than water, is used to transfer heat from an external source into a closed loop system. This enables the utilization of extremely low temperature heat sources to generate electrical power at low-cost and high-efficiency in marine applications.

In concrete terms, the MHI-MME system in Arnold Maersk generates electricity using the waste heat of the main engine jacket cooling water (approx. 85°C), and by reducing the load on the vessel's main generator, cuts CO2 emissions and improves the efficiency of the vessel's plant.

Prior to installation of the 125 kW ORC in the Arnold Maersk, a pilot ORC machine completed performance testing at the factory of MHI-MME partner Calnetix Technologies, Cerritos, CA, gaining the approval of ClassNK and Lloyd's Register of Shipping in 2015.

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Marine Log