In December, Everllence reported the successful running on ethanol – at all load points – of its 21/31 dual-fuel engine. This took place at test facilities in Frederikshavn, Denmark.
Everllence, formerly known as MAN Energy Solutions, pioneered the platform of two-stroke methanol-burning engines over a decade ago with the first commercial engine entering service in 2016. Building on this experience, Everllence became the first company to launch a small-bore, four-stroke, methanol-burning GenSet in 2024 – the 21/31DF-M (dual-fuel methanol) unit – with several already in commercial operation.
Building further on the 21/31 platform, the successful operation on ethanol provides Everllence with a fully operational engine with which to document ethanol’s capabilities as fuel.
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Running on ethanol without issues
Rasmus Frimann Nielsen – Senior Manager, Head of Four-Stroke Small-Bore Engineering, Everllence: ‘This engine platform has shown great promise when burning alternative fuels and, during testing, we even managed to expand the ethanol fuel-share compared with methanol. In general, the past few years have seen steadily growing interest in ethanol from the market. We always do our utmost to listen to these signals and had accordingly been carrying out the necessary design considerations, which has provided us with a solid technical foundation.’
‘Tests in Frederikshavn have now provided us with the technical know-how to take us to the next level. We are still evaluating the data, however it confirms our earlier assumption that we could run the 21/31 engine on ethanol without issues,’ adds Nielsen.
Lars Zimmermann – Director, Sales & Promotion, Marine GenSets, Everllence, concludes: ‘Now we need legislation in place that considers the case of ethanol as a viable fuel source, as well as developing a requisite market demand.’
Picture: The Everllence 21-31DF-M engine completed tests running on ethanol (image by Everllence).
Also read: MAN reveals world’s most powerful methanol engine
