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| Participants of a ceremony to celebrate Hyundai Heavy Industries' (HHI) achievement push buttons to start a methanol dual-fuel engine at the shipbuilder's headquarters in Ulsan, Wednesday. Courtesy of HHI |
By Park Jae-hyuk
ULSAN ― Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) celebrated its achievement of becoming the world's first company to produce two-stroke ship engines with an aggregate output of 200 million brake horsepower (BHP) at a ceremony at its headquarters in the southeastern port city, Wednesday.
The shipbuilding subsidiary of HD Hyundai achieved the milestone, 44 years after it began producing large-size ship engines in 1979. According to the company, the 200 million BHP is equivalent to the combined output of 1.25 million midsize sedans.
During the ceremony, HHI celebrated its achievement by starting the two-stroke ship engine (8G95ME-LGIM) with its 74,720 BHP. The engine that enabled the shipbuilder to achieve its goal is a methanol dual-fuel engine equipped with the low-flashpoint fuel supply system (LFSS) developed by Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE), the parent of HHI.
HHI said the engine will be installed in Maersk's world-first large-size methanol-powered 16,000-TEU container vessel.
"Over the past 40 years, HHI has produced high-quality engines, playing a major role in Korea becoming the world's shipbuilding powerhouse," HHI Chief Operating Officer of Engine & Machinery Division Han Ju-seog said. "We will continue to upgrade our technical skills for the nation's shipbuilding industry to make a new leap forward."
The ceremony was also attended by KSOE Vice Chairman Ka Sam-hyun, HHI Vice Chairman Han Young-seuk and over 300 representatives from shipbuilding and shipping companies here and overseas.
In 1978, HHI built a ship engine factory with an annual capacity of 900,000 BHP. After the successful manufacturing of its first engine with 9,380 BHP in 1979, HHI entered the global ship engine market and achieved the world's first 100 million BHP milestone in September 2010.
