March 5 is World Energy Efficiency Day, a memorial day that’s been celebrated since 1998. The occasion was inaugurated following the First International Meeting on Energy Efficiency in Austria, and aims to raise awareness around the need to reduce fuel consumption through practical and sensible measures.
Some people might imagine the heaviest users of internal combustion engines — the marine, power, rail and mining industries — wouldn’t have very much to celebrate on this day. But that’s far from the truth, especially among ABB Turbocharger customers.
In fact, fuel consumption in these sectors is often among the most efficient across all industries – as you’ll see below. It makes sense. Those industries whose profitability is most closely tied to the cost of fuel are most likely to be very concerned with ensuring the maximum energy is obtained from every barrel of fuel.
Turbochargers have a huge role to play. Here are five reasons why:
Turbochargers save fuel
200,000 ABB turbochargers, with a combined 363 GW turbocharged power output, help save up to 47,700,000 t of fuel oil per year.
That’s the equivalent of the total annual fuel requirements for 1590 large container ships!
Turbocharged ship engines are especially efficient at reducing fossil fuel consumption. Five litres of fuel can transport a one tonne cargo 500km on a ship but only 100km in a truck.
Turbochargers reduce emissions
According to DNV GL, the freight shipping industry delivers more than 90 percent of the world’s trade, yet it accounts for just 2–3 percent of anthropogenic (human-based) CO2 emissions.
CO2 emissions from marine vessels are cut by up to 40% thanks to turbochargers!
Turbochargers dramatically shrink engine sizes
One of the biggest engines in the world is the main engine of the CSCL Globe, MAN B&W 12S90ME-C. It’s a whopping 17.2m high, 22.4m long and 5m wide. It produces the equivalent power of 200 Porsche 911 GT3 engines.
It might be big, but if it didn’t have a turbocharger, an engine to emit the same amount of energy would need to be 4X the size!
Turbochargers shorten journeys
An average cargo vessel’s travel time from Far East Asia to Europe is about six weeks.
A long time – but without the power of turbochargers to increase engine efficiency, the journey would take 15 weeks!
Turbochargers do a lot of work for a long time
There’s no built-in obsolescence here. Industrial-strength turbochargers last for a very long time, despite moving at very high speeds for weeks or months at a time.
In fact, on a large two-stroke engine, over 25 years, a turbocharger blade might make over 60,000,000 revolutions!
Model example
Modern turbochargers make a massive difference to fuel consumption. The current gold standard here is the ABB Power2.
With a turbocharging efficiency above 75 percent, compared to the 65 percent efficiency of a conventional turbocharger, Power2 offers remarkable energy-efficiency choice for four-stroke engines. This can result in fuel savings of over 5% and significant cuts in emissions – we’re talking up to 60 percent lower NOx emissions.
Read more about the ABB Power2 and its remarkable efficiency.