Image: TOTE

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TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico has praised the performance of MAN's ME-GI engine installed aboard the world-first LNG-powered containerships, Isla Bella and Perla del Caribe, as they approach their third year in operation.

The 3,100-TEU sister ships serve the route between Jacksonville in Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and are notable for being propelled by the first ME-GI (-Gas Injection) dual-fuel engines produced by MAN Energy Solutions.

Tim Nolan, President and CEO of TOTE, noted: "The relationship between MAN and TOTE has been strong with excellent collaboration from the top level all the way to the engine room, and that continues. TOTE is proud to be an LNG first mover. We are committed to environmental responsibility, especially in terms of clean emissions that preserve the perfect areas of the Caribbean that our vessels operate in."

Peter Keller, Executive Vice President of TOTE, commented: "The LNG fueled ME-GI engine represents TOTE's commitment to environmental stewardship."

Keller added: "LNG is the fuel of choice for many operators going forward and, in combination with this very reliable dual-fuel technology, provides the quality benefits that we're all looking for.

"Acting as a pioneer and adopting new technology early in its lifetime always bears an element of risk, but our belief in the ME-GI's concept has proved justified."

TOTE is also cited as saying that the six MAN 9L28/32DF auxiliary engines aboard the two boxships "have performed as well as their main counterparts".

Bjarne Foldager - Vice President, Sales & Promotion, Two-Stroke Business at MAN Energy Solutions - said: "With over 200 ME-GI units ordered or already in service, the ME-GI engine has gathered references in every major marine segment and, as confirmed by TOTE's experience, is mature technology. The ME-GI continues to act as standard bearer for environmentally friendly, reliable propulsion technology with its seamless switching between fuels and elimination of methane slip, and we look forward to developing the concept even further in the future."

MAN Energy Solutions claims the ME-GI engine has "set a new industrial standard for two-stroke propulsion engines"; that the ME-GI runs "without the greenhouse emissions such as methane slip"; and that it is "the most environmentally friendly [engine] available within the two-stroke engine segment".

"With the ME-GI engine, two-stroke development has taken a step further by combining the unique properties of multi-fuel combustion and the well-known reliability of MAN Energy Solutions' ME- engine. The Diesel principle provides the ME-GI engine with high operational stability and efficiency, including during load changes and fuel change-over, while defining properties such as a stable change-over from fuel to gas with no fuel-penalties are maintained," MAN Energy Solutions adds.

The company has also developed an ME-LGI (-Liquid Gas Injection) dual-fuel engine that enables the use of methanol, ethanol and LPG.