Everllence has successfully tested a dual-fuel four-stroke engine with ethanol. The company is thus expanding its platform for alternative fuels and responding to the growing fuel uncertainty.
The engine manufacturer Everllence has been working on the use of alternative fuels in shipping for several years. In the two-stroke sector, the company was one of the first to launch engines that run on methanol. Recently, a two-stroke engine running on ammonia was added. Now Everllence has confirmed the successful operation of a dual-fuel four-stroke engine with ethanol. This is a 21/31 dual-fuel engine that has been tested under all load conditions on the test bench in Frederikshavn, Denmark.
Everllence continuously expands its platform
More than ten years ago, Everllence – then still MAN Energy Solutions – began researching and developing methanol-powered two-stroke engines. In 2016, the company put the first commercial engine into operation. In 2024, Everllence launched the 21/31DF-M (Dual-Fuel Methanol), a methanol-powered GenSet with a small displacement. According to the company, several of these GenSets are already in commercial use.
Following the successful test operation with ethanol, Everllence is now expanding the 21/31 platform with a fully functional engine that demonstrates the usability of ethanol as a fuel.
Interest in ethanol is growing
According to Everllence, interest in ethanol has grown steadily in recent years. The company is doing everything it can to take note of these signals and is working on corresponding concepts that offer a solid technical basis. Thanks to the tests in Frederikshavn, the company now has the technical know-how to take it to the next level.
“We are still evaluating the data, but it confirms our earlier assumption that we can run the 21/31 engine on ethanol without any problems,” says Rasmus Frimann Nielsen, Senior Manager, Head of Four-Stroke Small-Bore Engineering, Everllence. The platform has proven to be extremely promising in operation with alternative fuels. During the tests, the proportion of ethanol in the fuel could even be increased compared to methanol.
As his colleague Lars Zimmermann, Director Sales & Promotion Marine GenSets, adds, Everllence has observed that many customers are still uncertain about their fuel strategy for the coming years. In response to this, Everllence has developed numerous fuel-flexible solutions – the ethanol option of the 21/31 platform is the latest of these.
As a global engine developer, Everllence is particularly committed to continuously developing new technologies to decarbonize the maritime industry. Now, in addition to legislation that takes ethanol into account as a fuel, a corresponding development in demand is also needed.
