Everllence Powers Mauritanian Plant, Successfully Operates Ethanol-Fueled Engine

The China National Electric Engineering Co. (CNEEC) granted Everllence a contract to deliver four high-efficiency, 18-cylinder 51/60DF engines for a newbuild power plant in Nouakchott, Mauritania. SOMELEC, Mauritania’s national utility company, will operate the 74-MW plant with the goal to shrink the country’s large electricity supply gap. Commissioning is scheduled for completion by late 2026.

“Everllence is making a vital contribution to stabilizing Mauritania’s energy supply with this power plant,” said Ghassan Saab, Head of Power, Region MEA at Everllence. “We have been a trusted partner for energy projects across Africa for over half a century. Everllence has realized power plants in more than 30 African countries, contributing over 2.5 GW of installed capacity to the continent.”

18V51/60DF engine | Image Credit: Everllence

Each 51/60DF engine generates 18.5 MW of electric power, with Everllence achieving short delivery times via early-stage production planning and close collaboration with the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor and end user. The quick delivery benefited Mauritania due to its urgent energy needs, and SOMELEC will build additional facilities to further meet the country’s rapidly increasing electricity demand.

“We’re proud that CNEEC is relying on our technology to strengthen the power supply in Mauritania,” said Martin Chmiela, Head of Power, Asia Pacific at Everllence. “Our dual-fuel engines offer maximum fuel flexibility. Depending on availability, the engines can seamlessly switch between fuels without compromising performance, always ensuring reliable power generation.”

Ethanol-Fired Engine

Recently, Everllence successfully operated its 90-bore ME-LGIM two-stroke engine on ethanol, at all load points, in Japan. Its successful ethanol-running validation provides Everllence with a fully operational engine to document ethanol capabilities for the ME-LGIM platform.

“The past few years have brought steadily growing interest in ethanol from the market,” said Ole Pyndt Hansen, Senior Vice President, Head of Two-Stroke R&D, Everllence. “We always do our utmost to listen to these signals and have accordingly been carrying out the necessary design considerations for quite some time; this has provided us with a solid technical foundation. With this latest development, we now have the technical know-how from an actual running engine to take us to the next level. Our data confirms our earlier assumption that we could run our ME-LGIM engine on ethanol without issues.”

ME-LGIM ethanol engine | Image Credit: Everllence

Over a decade ago, Everllence developed the ME-LGIM platform with the first commercial engine entering service in 2016 within the methanol-carrier segment. The company leveraged this operating experience by upscaling its methanol burning portfolio in 2021, installing the first ME-LGIM outside the methanol-carrier segment.

“The successful conclusion of running in Japan means that we are now significantly closer to offering ethanol as retrofit product, especially on the S90 engines already equipped with ME-LGIM engine technology,” said Michael Petersen, Senior Vice President, Head of PrimeServ Denmark, Everllence. “As such we are eagerly awaiting further market input about the viability of ethanol from commercial, application, and bunkering perspectives. In general, introducing ethanol capability to retrofitted engines will bring those customers of ours wishing to pursue alcohol-burning engines to a similar technology-readiness and capability as those directly adopting from our existing engine portfolio.”

Compressor & Expander Supply

Earlier this month, SAIPEM contracted Everllence to deliver core compressor and expander technology for Stockholm Exergi’s Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage project at the Värtaverket biomass power plant in Stockholm, Sweden. The plant will use Everllence’s electrically driven MAX1 compressor train for managing flue gas, which features the AG110 axial compressor and the EN080 axial expander.