The majority of goods worldwide are transported by ships. In the next 5-10 years
stricter regulations on the pollution from these vessels are comming into force.
These include regulations for nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. At the same time
more stringent regulations on fuel sulfur content are introduced. A consequence is
that the ship engines, for a large part designed by MAN Diesel & Turbo A/S in
Copenhagen, and in particular the operation of the ship engines will be changed.
One of the major challenges in this context is to prevent "cold corrosion" in the
engines, which have proved to be a bigger problem under the changed
circumstances. "Cold corrosion" is a mixture of acid attack and mechanical wear in
the engine, that has occurred because the sulfuric acid to a greater extent condense
on the cylinder walls in the engines.
SULCOR is a project where DTU and MAN Diesel & Turbo has teamed up with
international universities in a challenging work to understand and articulate the
mechanisms underlying the formation and condensation of sulfuric acid in the
engines, in order to show ways to avoid the problems.