Stena Line’s 51,837gt/2001 built Stena Germanica (above) will have all four main engines running on methanol by early 2016. Stena AB has confirmed that it converted a second main engine to methanol propulsion in December after running the one engine for about 700 hours on the fuel. All four engines will be so treated by early 2016. 

Preparations for the conversion took place when the vessel was in dry dock at Remontowa shipyard in March 2015 so the new conversions are expected to be a lot quicker than for the first engine. The timetable for the conversions has been devised so as not to jeopardise the vessel’s operation and to minimise delays. Methanol requires about double the volume compared to marine diesel oil in order to achieve the same output but the environmental profile is similar to LNG but with less challenging infrastructure. Wärtsilä is Stena’s technical partner in the conversion project.