Rolls-Royce has announced sweeping changes to its marine business. This includes the elimination of 800 jobs and the creation of a new Research and Development center in Norway. The company supplies a broad range of products and services for the marine sector including Bergen diesel engines, gas turbines and also offers ship design services for merchant, offshore and naval vessels. The company has not specified where the job reductions will be and said the move was a result of continuing weakness in the maritime market. Rolls-Royce added that planned measures include a further simplification of the structure of the business and an estimated $50 million to $62 million of annualized savings from mid-2017.

After diesel engine sales have dropped significantly, car manufacturers are doing their best to get back on track. Chevrolet has launched a project that will open up a new way of production and sales. It will focus on the production of cars that have a 1.6-liter turbo diesel engine with 4 cylinders, with low fuel consumption that can reach 140 horsepower and will be within an affordable price range. GM Authority stated engine production will launch in 2017. The value of the diesel engines is $24,670, giving hope for next year.

South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has received a $650 million order to build 10 ships equipped with the most powerful diesel engines for Iran’s state-owned shipping company. The company will build 10 container ships and tankers for the ports of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Delivery will start in 2018. MAN Diesel will probably construct the diesel engines for the vessels, which reach up to 100,000 horsepower and have a very short reaction time. "The contract was signed on Friday and it is the first order from Iran in a long time," said Yonhap, South Korea’s News Agency.

MAN Diesel & Turbo recently completed a noteworthy job, carrying out a turbocharger retrofit with just five weeks. The vessel in question, Faeroese trawler, ‘Sjurdaberg’, was constructed in 1985 and has successfully operated in the North Sea for over 30 years. Equipped with a 1984-built MAN 9L28/32A Alpha engine and NA34/K turbocharger, the trawler has accumulated more than 115,000 operating hours in one of the world’s major fishing grounds. Gottfried Eberle, Head of Turbocharger Retrofit – MAN Diesel & Turbo – said: “During the retrofit, we replaced the original axial MAN NA34/K unit with a modern, radial MAN TCR20 turbocharger. The main advantages of the new turbocharger are its small size and efficiency, and its short reaction time.

The fuel was tested using a special method for the engine V18 MAN 51/60DF. The study presents a detailed method on the thermal design of a natural gas - diesel dual fuel internal combustion engine. An 18 cylinder four stroke turbocharged engine is considered to operate at a maximum speed of 500 rpm for marine and power plant applications. Thermodynamic, heat transfer and fluid flow phenomena are mathematically analyzed to provide a real cycle analysis together with a complete set of calculated operation conditions, power characteristics and engine efficiencies. The method is found to provide results in close agreement to published data for the actual performance of similar engines such as V18 MAN 51/60DF.

One man, and so many anniversaries. 120 years ago, Rudolph Diesel began to work on the compression ignition engines, that would soon be named after its creator. The first prototype was completed and passed the first tests during the same year. The first diesel engine factory was established 115 years ago. The engine invented by Diesel was used in ships for the first time 110 years ago, and it has been 90 years since the first diesel-powered truck went on the road. The car MINI was first fitted with a diesel engine ten years ago. Each of these anniversaries is reason enough to commemorate the inventor, who died exactly 100 years ago.

Audi Lucas has taken up the post of Chief Digitization Officer (CDO) at MAN Diesel & Turbo, where he is tasked with maintaining and replacing "analogue" devices with digital ones in MAN Diesel turbines. Before moving to MAN, Lucas was employed at the global consultancy firm Wipro Technologies as Director. "Digitalization is not as much about technology as it is about addressing friction points in the market. Then finding new ways and business opportunities to address those points in a blindingly fast and agile way," says Lucas. MAN Diesel Chairman of the Board Uwe Lauber says: "As a creative mission, digitization goes way beyond the development of technologies," concluding that in Germany, MAN Diesel & Turbo will have an easier development of current diesel engine projects.

BMW made a strong comeback, posting 20% sales growth in the first nine months of this year, on the back of its sub-2 litre diesel engine portfolio, enabling growth faster than the market. The diesel engines have proven to be of the utmost quality, and will be made available across eight different models. Frank Schloeder, acting president of the BMW Group India said there was a reason why the company has slowed down the business as it was not sustainable and the company had to take some important decision to bring the business back on track.