Efficiency Improvement of a Natural Gas Marine Engine Using a Hybrid Turbocharger

The use of a computer simulator, previously developed and validated, applied to a four-stroke marine dual-fuel engine, has allowed the authors to present in this paper a solution to improve the overall efficiency of the engine by adopting a hybrid turbocharger. This component replaces the original one allowing, in addition to maintaining the previous usual functions, the production of electricity to satisfy part of the ship's electric load. In this study the application of the hybrid turbocharger concerns an engine powered by natural gas in particular. The turbocharger substitution involves a significant variation of the engine load governor operating mode. The improved engine characteristics that the hybrid turbocharger facilitates, compared to the original, are highlighted by the results reported in tabular and graphical form, for different engine loads and speeds.