CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL

DES MACHINES A COMBUSTION

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
ON COMBUSTION ENGINES

PAPER NO.: 37
Operational experience of the 51/60 DF from MAN
Diesel SE
Nicolaus Boeckhoff, MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, Germany
Guenter Heider, MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, Germany
Paul Hagl, MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, Germany

Abstract: The 51/60DF engine is a new development of the MAN Diesel SE.
The design of the engine had to consider the market requirements for Marine and Stationary applications. Driven by those market requirements the focus of the development was pointed on the efficiency,
emissions and fuel flexibility and a wide range of application possibilities. The first prototype engine started
its test run in 2006. During the one and a half years
of testing period the engine components and engine
parameters were optimized to fulfill the costumers
demands. In addition, new technologies like a turbocharger with variable turbine area were introduced
and tested.
The final design was introduced to the serial
production engines. The first inline engines for a
174.000m3 LNG carrier passed successfully the factory acceptance test in December 2008 followed by

c
CIMAC
Congress 2010, Bergen

18 V 51/60DF engines for a stationary power plant in

2009.
In addition, an existing 48/60 engine which ran
more than 80000 operating hours with HFO was converted to the 51/60 DF technology. This power plant in
Portugal allows, MAN Diesel SE to get field experience
and to validate the 51/60DF technology.
The paper will give an overview about the achieved
results of the prototype engine operating on liquid fuels and gaseous fuels. The test carried out showed
a very good engine performance while switching from
liquid fuel to gas operation. Even using HFO as fuel,
the MAN engine control was optimized, so that a direct change over without using an intermediate Fuel
for cleaning the combustion room is possible. After
more then one year of operation the field test engine
is now showing an outstanding availability of 97%.

INTRODUCTION
The new developed 51/60 DF engine serves mainly
Dual Fuel-Electric applications to generate power
and heat.
Main driver for the development in 2004 was the
booming LNG Carrier market. Due to increasing
fuel prices the DFDE propulsions concepts
substitute the established but poorer efficient
concepts with steam turbines.
An increasing interest for the 51/60DF engine is
coming nowadays from the power plant application
for plants of 20 MW to 200 MW size.
For both applications marine and stationary the
total fuel flexibility is essential. That means that the
engine has to operate on gaseous fuel with a wide
range of Methane numbers. and heat values as well
with liquid fuels as MGO, MDO and HFO.
Emission regulations like World bank II for
stationary applications and IMO Tier II for marine
applications are in focus of the development by
operation the engine on liquid fuels. In gas
operation due to the very low NOx emission level
the efficiency of the engine was the most important
target. The multitude of regional regulations to the
level of NOx emissions makes it difficult to fix a
NOx target value for the development. Due to the
relative low NOx level in Gas operation of the
51/60DF a combination of a high engine efficiency
and a exhaust after treatment system can be very
attractive for customers who are confronted with
very low NOx emissions regulations.
This paper will give a short overview over the
51/60DF engine design and control as well as a
description of the efficiency improvement in Gas
operation and experience with the flexibility in
burning different fuels during the development
phase. The validation and availability of the
51/60DF technology is pointed out using the
example of the to Duel fuel technology converted
power plant in Portugal.

MAIN PART
The 51/60DF engine is based on the 48/60B HFO
engine. Main parts like the design of Crankcase,
crankshaft and connecting rod are taken over from
the 48/60B engine. Figure 1 shows the main
differences in engine design. The in red colored
components like Piston and liner are new
respectively modified design for the 510 mm bore
DF engine.
CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Figure 1: Overview of 51/60DF Components

In addition to the above mentioned sub assemblys
further components like cylinder individual gas
valves, knocking detection system and an air fuel
control device are installed on the engine, to allow
operation on gaseous fuels.
For safety and according to the FMEA (failure
modes effects analysis) for this gas fueled engine
pressure relief valves are installed on the charge air
and exhaust gas manifold.

Number
Cylinders

of

6,7,8,9

12,14,16,18

Speed

rpm

500

514

Cylinder
Output

kW/
Cyl.

975

1000

Bore/ Stroke

mm

510/ 600

Bmep

bar

19,0

Table 1 Main engine specification 51/60 DF

The 51/60DF engine operates in gaseous and liquid
fuel mode. In gas mode the engine operates
according to the lean-burn four stroke Otto
combustion process. The premixed lean gas/air
mixture is ignited by the compression ignition of a
small quantity of injected MDO-pilot fuel into the
main combustion room. The amount of this injected
pilot fuel is less than 1% of the full load liquid fuel
quantity. This ensures very low NOx-emissions in
the gas mode. In the liquid fuel mode, the fuel oil is
injected via the conventional main pumps known
from the 48/60BHFO engine. The thermodynamic
working process is the four stroke diesel
combustion process. The range of usable fuel
qualities in this fuel mode ranges from Marine
Diesel Oil (MDO) to Heavy fuel Oil (HFO) up to 700
cst @50C.

Paper No. 37

The engine management system SaCoSone DF

provides the control system in both gas and liquid
mode. The air to fuel ratio is controlled either by an
compressor bypass, installed after the charge air
cooler or alternatively controlled by variable turbine
nozzle ring of the turbocharger (VTA). The
SaCoSone DF architecture is dominated by four
independent units: interface module, control module
injection module and knocking detection module.
The interface module ensures the data transfer
from and to the external plant relevant controls. The
control unit is in charge of the safety and alarm
system and in addition of engine management
functions. The speed control is done by the
injection unit and controls the main injection fuel oil
pumps, the individual fuel gas admission valves for
each cylinder, the common rail pressure and the
common rail pilot fuel injectors. The individual
knocking levels from each cylinder are collected by
the knocking detection unit. In combination with the
cylinder individual control of the pilot injection and
the gas admission, the SaCoSone control ensures
a stable operation in gas mode with a sufficient
margin to the knocking and the misfiring border. In
addition the control system establishes connections
with the ships overall alarm and safety systems.

During the tests with the combustion chamber 1 an

increased THC emissions value was recorded.
These test results indicated, that there was still
potential for increasing the efficiency in gas mode
by optimising the combustion chamber. The design
of the combustion chamber was converted to a
one-piece liner with flame ring and a reduced flame
ring height (see Figure 2, combustion chamber 2).
Figure 3 shows the results of the comparison of the
temperature upstream of the turbine, which is an
indicator of the air-fuel ratio. With the new
combustion chamber 2, THC emissions were
reduced by almost 50% and the knock limit was
shifted to richer mixtures.

Efficiency and Emissions

One of the development objectives for the 51/60DF
was total fuel flexibility. For this reason,
development began with the familiar combustion
chamber design of the 48/60B HFO engine with
adapted piston recess geometry for gas mode. This
design consists of a two-piece liner with fire land
ring (see Figure 2, combustion chamber 1 on lefthand side), which is highly suitable for operation
with heavy fuel oil (HFO). With this design, the
target values for consumption using liquid fuels
were achieved at the first attempt.

Figure 3: Comparison of combustion chamber

design with regard to THC emissions
Figure 4 clearly illustrates the effects of the THC
reduction and of consumption plotted against the
load. The reduced fuel consumption advantage up
to partial load is due to a lean air-fuel ratio.

Figure 2: Design of the combustion chamber

CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Paper No. 37

Figure 4: Comparison of combustion chamber

design with regard to THC emissions and SFGC
Three
different
compression
ratios
were
investigated during the development process. As
expected, the best specific consumption was
achieved with a high compression ratio in diesel
mode. A comparison of the low and high
compression ratios produces a fuel consumption
advantage that is in compliance with the World
Bank and IMO NOx limit values of 3 g/kWh in
Diesel mode. The dependencies between
compression ratio, efficiency and NOx emissions
for gas mode are illustrated in Figure 5. In this
figure, efficiency is plotted against the NOx
emissions.

CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Figure 5: NOx trade-off in Gas mode

Tests showed that good efficiency can be achieved
with lean mixtures and low NOx emissions with a
high compression ratio. However, with this high
compression ratio there was no longer an operating
window with respect to different engine setting
parameters such as air-fuel ratio, for example. With
this high compression ratio, the initiation of ignition
had to be set disproportionately late as enrichment
of the air-fuel ratio was increased, in order to
prevent knocking combustion. This can be seen in
the sharp fall in the curve for richer mixtures and in
the increase in THC emissions in Figure 5. The
medium and low compression ratios have a
sufficiently large operating window with respect to
different air-fuel ratios, with efficiency advantages
for the medium compression ratio.

Paper No. 37

Figure 6: Variation of methane number and

compression ratio.
However, this changes when gases with low
methane numbers are used. Figure 6 shows the
dependencies between efficiency, compression
ratio and methane number. Due to knocking in the
combustion of gases with a decreasing methane
number, the injection time for the pilot fuel must be
set later for operation with the medium compression
ratio. The lower compression ratio of variant 2 is
characterised by a larger operating window with
respect to decreasing methane numbers, which
means that the consumption disadvantage of lower
compression with decreasing methane numbers
can be overcompensated here.
The effects of different pilot fuel nozzle geometries
and injection quantities on the operating values for
the engine were also investigated. The injection
holes diameter, number of injection holes and the
angle were varied. Figure 7 shows three different
pilot fuel nozzle configurations. Injector variant 1
was devised for low pilot fuel quantities. With
injector variant 2, the flow rate was increased in
comparison with injector 1, and with injector variant
3 the number of injection holes was increased while
maintaining the flow rate from variant 2. (see Table
2)
Injector

Area

No. holes

Angle

100%

100%

Base

200%

100%

Base

200%

150%

Base

Table 2: Pilot fuel injector configurations

CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Figure 7: Pilot fuel injection nozzle variation

Injector 1, with its low flow rate characteristic, was
designed to achieve low NOx emissions. This was
confirmed in testing. However, with this injector
design, efficiency cannot be increased as the
injection duration increases. Efficiency remains at a
low level. The best consumption values were
achieved with pilot fuel injector variant 3. Compared
with injector 1, there is an efficiency advantage of
more than 1.5 percentage points for the same NOx
emissions. Furthermore, the maximum achievable
value is increased by 2 percentage points. This
increase in efficiency is due to the better coverage
of the combustion chamber and the shorter
combustion time.
Contrary to the CFD simulations for the pilot fuel
injector spray angle design, testing showed that the
spray angle had a significant effect on the operating
values. Figure 8 shows the effect of the spray angle
on efficiency in accordance with the injected fuel
quantity. Through modifiing the spray angle of the
pilot fuel injector by 5 the efficiency increases by
one percentage point, for the same injected fuel
amount.

Paper No. 37

consumption increases by approx. 4% compared

with the engine setting for optimum efficiency.

Figure 8: Pilot fuel spray angle variation

Figure 9 summarises the results of the individual
development steps described above and compares
the construction stage at the start and at the end of
testing. In the course of development, efficiency
was increased by more than three percentage
points at full load and THC emissions were reduced
by more than 50% in the relevant load range.

In the search for further efficiency potential, both a

waste gate and a variable nozzle ring (VTA) were
applied to the engine for lambda control in gas
mode. While no consumption advantages could be
achieved with the waste gate compared with the
previously installed compressor bypass, there were
clear consumption advantages during testing with
the VTA during operation under partial load and
significantly improved operating performance at low
loads. Figure 10 shows the axial VTA version of the
turbocharger in the turbine sectional view. The VTA
was used for combustion air control and thus
replaced the compressor bypass, which was
deactivated during testing.

Figure 10: Axial turbocharger with VTA

Figure 9: Comparison
configuration

of

initial

and

best

If, for example, the engine has to comply with the

TA-Luft regulations (500 mg/m@5%O2) in gas
mode, this requires adaptation of the engine
parameters , including the pilot fuel quantity, pilot
fuel injection time and air-fuel ratio. Consequently,
CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

For the 51/60 DF engine, the combustion air had

been controlled using a compressor bypass, which
means that air that already had been compressed
was returned to the intake system. The
turbocharger was adapted so that the compressor
bypass still had a control reserve of 10% at full
load. To ensure that the combustion air-fuel ratio for
the respective load level could be set in the partial
load range, the compressor bypass damper was
opened wide here. Up to 10% of the air that has
already been compressed was thus vented again
under partial load. This obviously had a negative
impact on overall turbocharger efficiency and on

Paper No. 37

engine efficiency. In the case of control with the

VTA, the turbine nozzle ring cross section is
controlled and full use is thus made of the work
done. This can be seen in terms of the engine
efficiency, which is plotted against the load in
Figure 11. While the engine efficiency under full
load is similar for both control concepts, with VTA
control there is an efficiency advantage of 0.5
percentage points in the partial load range starting
from an 85% engine load.

Figure 10: Effect of VTA on efficiency plotted

against the load

compressor bypass, it is always started in diesel

mode. Only when engine performance reaches
15% can the operator decide whether to switch the
engine to gas mode or continue to operate with
liquid fuel.

Switch over from Diesel to Gas mode and vice

versa
One major issue for a Dual fuel engine is the
performance during fuel changes. The change over
from liquid fuel to gaseous fuel must be
uninterrupted with a high stability in engine load
and speed. By optimizing the logistic and the
parameters of the SaCoSone speed governor this
target was realized. Figure 13 show a fuel change
from Diesel operation to Gas operation at 100%
load. The engine speed varies during the two
minutes change over by only 1 rpm and show so a
very high stability. During this fuel transfer both
fuels are controlled.

Figure 13: change over from Diesel to Gas mode

Figure 11: Effect of VTA on scavenging pressure

difference
As the control element for the combustion air in gas
mode, the VTA also produced positive engine
operating performance in the low load range. Figure
11 shows the scavenging pressure difference
plotted against the load. If a VTA is used, a positive
scavenging pressure gradient can be achieved
even at very low loads. As a result of throttle
restriction in the exhaust tract with the VTA, the
engine provided acceptable engine running
performance below 15% engine load and even
started in pure gas mode without use of the main
injection system. If the engine is equipped with the
CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

In case of a safety relevant alarm during Gas

operation the engine will be immediately transferred
to Diesel operation. This quick change over takes
place in less then 0,5 seconds and is a challenge
for the speed governor. In this case up to 5 rpm
speed deviations are recorded at the tests shown in
Figure 14.

Paper No. 37

propulsion of the ship. However, when unloaded,

the boil off gas from the heel (remaining liquid in
the tank) is only enough for max. one to two
engines of the drive unit. If there is no additional
gas generated via an evaporator, the rest of the
energy required for propulsion must be generated
with liquid fuel. In such cases, heavy fuel oil is
reverted to as much as possible at present for cost
reasons. Supply bottlenecks and interruptions can
occur in stationary plants, forcing the operator to
run the gas engine temporarily with liquid fuel.
Figure 14: quick changeover change over to Diesel

The change from liquid fuel to gaseous fuels takes

place over the entire load range between 15% and
100%. The combustion process of the 51/60 DF
engine is configured to allow a brief overload up to
110% MCR in Gas and Diesel mode. Given the fact
that an overload is only permitted for compensation
purposes, only a quick changeover to diesel mode
is permitted for these engine loads. Figure 15
shows the comparison of the possible modes
depending on engine load. Operation with the
compressor bypass is shown on the right and
operation with the VTA as lambda control is shown
on the left. As described before with the VTA
technology it is possible to start and to operate the
engine in a load range below 15% MCR.

Figure 15: Compressor bypass versus VTA

Fuel Flexibility
For marine applications in particular, but also for
stationary applications, flexibility with regard to
choice of fuel is an important economic factor.
Thus, for example, when an LNG tanker is loaded,
natural boil off gas (NBOG) is produced in sufficient
quantities in the tanks to provide energy for
CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Both the engine and the engine control unit have to

cope under these conditions, particularly as the
combustion chamber becomes contaminated with
deposits when the engine is in HFO mode. These
deposits lead to an increased tendency to knock
and to more severe knocking in gas mode
depending on the thickness of the deposits.
In order to check the feasibility and for the
subsequent optimisation of the control unit, short
and long-duration testing was carried out for HFO
fuel and the effects on gas mode. If the engine was
run for only a short time with heavy fuel oil and then
switched to gas mode at 100% engine load, the
engine can continue to run at this load in gas mode
by means of knock control, until after approx. 2
hours the combustion chamber is clean again.
However, if the engine was run for a long period
with HFO, tests showed that adjustment the start of
pilot fuel injection alone is not sufficient in order to
be able to switch the engine to gas mode at 100%
load. In this case, other engine parameters were
used in addition to adjust of the start of pilot fuel
injection in order to be able to switch the engine to
gas mode.
Another step towards total fuel flexibility is fuel
sharing. This mode is of particular interest for the
aforementioned LNG tanker application and always
when the quantity of evaporated gas is not
sufficient for the number of engines required. In
such cases without fuel sharing mode, the operator
must commission another engine and operate it to
compensate for the additional output required in
partial load in diesel mode. With fuel sharing mode,
the plant can operate all of its engines at a load
level for optimum efficiency, whereby one engine
then runs in fuel sharing mode.
In this mode, any mixture of gas and liquid fuels
can be burnt simultaneously in the combustion
chamber within certain limits. In Figure 16, the xaxis shows the rate of energy fed for combustion

Paper No. 37

via the liquid fuel, while the engine load is plotted

on the y-axis. The fuel sharing range is limited by
the minimum injection amount of the main fuel
system on the one hand and by the minimum load
on the other (shown in grey in the diagram).

Figure 16: Fuel sharing limits

A higher diesel fuel rate injected via the main fuel
system has a negative effect on emissions and
consumption. This is illustrated in Figure 17:
In gas mode with pilot fuel injection a high
optimised efficiency due to the low NOx emissions
can be achieved. Due to the high NOx emissions in
Diesel Mode, the injection for the main fuel system
must be set later. In Fuel sharing mode with an
increasing liquid fuel rate, the NOx emissions are
increasing disproportionately and reaching at about
40% of liquid fuel rate the emission level of a
straight Diesel combustion. To comply with the NOx
limit values of the IMO or World Bank, the injection
timing therefore has to be set to a later position as
know from diesel mode. In testing, consumption
and NOx emissions similar to pure diesel mode
were achieved with a liquid fuel rate of approx. 40%
in fuel sharing mode.

CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Figure 17: Fuel sharing mode

Validation / Field test:

To provide further assurance and validation in
continuous-operation testing, a retrofit project for
dual fuel technology on an engine from the 48/60
family was used. It was possible to utilize synergy
potential. The customer, whose operating licence
for energy production using HFO fuels had expired,
converted his heavy fuel engine to the latest gas
technology of the 51/60 DF. This provided an
opportunity for continuous-operation testing in the
field for the engine components.
In this retrofit project, a 12V 48/60 HFO was
converted to a 12V 51/60DF engine. The engine
was run with HFO for over 80,000 operating hours
prior to conversion and maintenance was required
due to the high number of operating hours. After a
conversion and commissioning process lasting just
three months, the engine was handed over to the
customer in May 2008. The engine runs for 17
hours on workdays and has clocked up 8,000
operating hours to date. Availability of 97% was
achieved in this time. Figure 18 shows the engine
converted to 51/60 DF technology.

Paper No. 37

The inlet and exhaust valves showed signs of

heavy wear after a short operating time. Due to the
inadequate lubricating characteristics of gas as a
fuel, it was necessary to convert the plating of the
valves and valve seats to a harder material with a
higher molybdenum content. Whereas before the
material change the valve clearance had to be
adjusted every second week, now it is sufficient to
check the valve clearance at the specified
maintenance intervals. The valves and valve seats
show no signs of wear during the regular
inspections, which means that the time between
overhaul intervals (TBO) can be maintained.
Another
component
that
required
further
development was the relief valve on the exhaust
duct. A V-engine features two such valves. These
protect the exhaust tract against high pressure in
the event of an explosion. These valves failed after
1,000 operating hours as a result of decreasing
spring rigidity and opened during regular engine
operation at loads of between 90% and 100%.
Working together with the sub supplier, both the
valve seal and the valve temperature resistance
were improved. As a result of a design change to
the exhaust gas casing, the valve cooling was
improved and the temperature under the valve
casing was reduced by 100C. There have been no
further relief valve failures since the implementation
of these measures.
Other 51/60 DF-specific components such as the
pilot fuel injectors, the high-pressure pilot fuel
pump, CR pipes, gas valves etc. have not been
replaced since conversion of the engine and have
thus reached a useful life of 8,000 operating hours.

CONCLUSIONS
The design of the 51/60DF considers the market
requirements of marine and stationary applications.
Driven by those market requirements, the
development was focused on efficiency, emissions
and fuel flexibility.
The efficiency target in Diesel mode under fulfilling
emission regulations like World bank II for
stationary applications and IMO Tier II for marine
applications has been reached
In Gas operation the 51/60DF has undercut the
IMO Tier III NOx limit values and, by optimizing the
combustion chamber, the efficiency was improved
by 3% points.
The engine control SaCoSone ensures an
uninterrupted change over from liquid fuel to
gaseous fuel and vice versa with a very high
stability in speed and load. In emergency cases the
engine can be transferred from Gas to Diesel
operation in less then 0,5 seconds with a minor
speed change of 5 rpm
The engine is totally flexible in burning gaseous fuel
in a wide range of Methane numbers and heat
values and liquid fuels like MGO, MDO and HFO up
to 700 cst. @50C. The new introduced fuel sharing
mode allows to burn nearly any mixtures of liquid
fuels and gaseous fuels at the same time.
The first field test results show very encouraging
results with an engine availability of more then 97%

Figure 18: Engine converted to 51/60 DF design

CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Paper No. 37

10

NOMENCLATURE
FMEA

Failure Modes Effects Analysis

LNG

Liquefied Natural Gas

HFO

Heavy fuel oil

DFDE

Dual fuel Diesel Electric

MGO

Marine Gas Oil

MDO

Marine Diesel Oil

THC

Total Hydro Carbon

CFD

3D-Computational Fluid Dynamics

CR

Common Rail

VTA

Variable Turbine Area

IMO

International Maritime Organisation

MCR

Max. Continuos Rating

NBOG

Natural Boil off Gas

SFOC

Specific Fuel oil consumption

SGFC

Specific Gas Fuel consumption

TBO

Time between overhaul

SaCoSone

Safety & Control System on engine

REFERENCES
(1) Optimierung von
Einsatz
variable
ATK 2008

Gasmotoren durch
Turboladergeometrie;

(2) MAN LV 5160DF the Dual Fuel engine for

ship application, MTZ Ricado

CIMAC Congress 2010, Bergen

Paper No. 37

11