Swedish engine builder increases commercial market

摘要

Volvo Penta reports that, to date, it has delivered about 100 diesel engines ranging in capacity from 5litre to 34litres for propulsion and gensets to Kirby Inland Marine, said to be the largest operator of tank barges in the USA. Kirby's fleet of 215 tugboats and 911 tank barges corresponds to about one third of the total US oil and chemical product barge tonnage. Kirby is undertaking a programme of repowering its fleet with Volvo Penta engines. Over 40 of these engines are for tugboat propulsion. According to Volvo Penta, these engines operate under particularly tough conditions, in temperatures that are often 40℃ in the air and 25℃ in water. Previously, Kirby's tugboats were mainly propelled by two-stroke diesel engines, which in general have significantly higher values with regard to fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. When Kirby decided to replace these with new engines, the company placed high environmental demands on its prospective engine suppliers. Volvo Penta has recently equipped two Kuwaiti workboats, a pilot boat and a buoy layer, with twin 34litre diesel engines. Both vessels, which had been laid-up since the invasion by Iraq in the beginning of the 1990s, are now in service in the Kuwait City harbour.