With the current focus on alternative marine power sources, it’s easy to overlook the overwhelmingly dominant position of the internal combustion engine, or ICE, in marine propulsion. The marine two-stroke ICE is so well proven and so well established that it will continue to have a central place in ship propulsion for decades to come.
If demands for decarbonization in shipping are to be met, the question then becomes one of fuel: which fuels can be green enough, and available soon enough, to satisfy stricter emissions regulations, and how will engine makers adapt to the new norm of fossil-free fuel?