MAN awards ‘no objection’ to cylinder oils

Shell Marine’s Alexia 40 XC cylinder oil, Chevron Marine Lubricants’ Taro Ultra Advanced 40 and ExxonMobil’s Mobilgard 540 AC 40BN marine cylinder oil have all received a no objection letter (NOL) from Man Energy Solutions (MAN ES) for use with the OEM’s marine engines.

MAN ES awarded the NOLs after the oils successfully completed MAN’s Category II service test and confirmation test. The NOL allows use of the lubricants in MAN’s Mark 9 and later engine models.

Category II lubricants are higher performance oils designed for MAN’s Mark 9 and later engines, while Category I oils are approved for use with MAN ES Markk 8 and earlier engines.                

“100BN and 140BN cylinder oils meeting Category II for use with heavy fuel oil are already available, but lower BN, specifically, 40BN cylinder oils for use with very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) meeting Category II have proved more challenging and are taking longer to develop and commercialise,” a statement from Chevron Marine Lubricants said.

Accurately monitor critical assets

Taro Ultra Advanced 40 was tested extensively on vessels with MAN 8G80ME-C9.2 in conjunction with shipowners including Greece’s Cape Shipping, according to Chevron.

Cape Shipping technical manager Elias Soulis said, “We were operating our engines on 40BN cylinder oil and VLSFO; however, we had to alternate it with 100BN oil to keep our MAN G80ME-C9.2 engine clean. We have now operated for an extended time on Chevron’s new high-performance 40BN cylinder oil and have seen a significant improvement. We no longer have to alternate between the two products to have excellent looking engine cylinder conditions. Having a single product for all our operational conditions reduces the complexity of the operations for our crew.”

Shell Marine said the successful approval of its formulation was the result of close collaboration with MAN ES to develop an approved Category II lubricant for engines operating with <0.5% sulphur fuels, ranging from VLSFO to liquefied natural gas and rigorous testing with the latest engine designs (Mark 9 and higher).

Shell Marine technology manager for marine and engine lubricants Dr Luis Garcia said, “With the industry focused on reducing emissions, engine technology is continuously evolving to deliver higher efficiencies when operating with very low to zero sulphur fuels. Latest engine designs operate with challenging conditions in terms of pressure and temperature, demanding for higher performing lubrication, particularly in terms of engine cleanliness, making the development of a CAT II 40BN cylinder oil essential.”

Shell said its new product is expected to be progressively made available at major ports worldwide from Q3 2022, and Chevron said Taro Ultra Advanced 40 will be available across its global supply network in the second half of 2022.

ExxonMobil has also had its Mobilgard 540 AC 40BN marine cylinder oil granted Category II status by MAN ES for use in their Mark 9 and higher two-stroke marine engine designs and received a NOL from the engine builder following extensive field demonstrations.

ExxonMobil Global Marine said the high-performance cylinder oil will be available to order from the third quarter of 2022 in “key locations from ExxonMobil’s extensive network of more than 650 ports throughout the world.”

Source: https://www.rivieramm.com/news