Marek SUTKOWSKI PTNSS–2011-SC-046

Wärtsilä 18V50SG – the world’s biggest four-stroke spark-ignited

gas engine
Abstract:
In 2010 Wärtsilä introduced brand new four-stroke spark-ignited lean-burn gas engine to its portfolio. The
new engine generates close to 19MW of power with efficiency about 46%. The product follows market needs and
expectations for decentralised power generation combined with reliable and flexible operation.
In this paper technical specification of the Wärtsilä 180V50SG will be presented. The description will include
development background as well as the engine operation performance, emission levels and fuel requirements.
The main components of the engine and applied technology will be also described.
Finally, some typical applications of the Wärtsilä 18V50SG will be shown including the newest power plant
concept for high-efficency decentralised power generation. The most significant operational features of the
engine will be also covered in this paper.
Key words: four-stroke spark-ignited lean-burn gas engine

Wärtsilä 18V50SG – największy na świecie czterosuwowy silnik gazowy o zapłonie

iskrowym

Streszczenie:
W 2010 roku Wärtsilä wprowadziła do oferty nowy czterosuwowy silnik gazowy o zapłonie iskrowym
spalający mieszanki ubogie. Nowy silnik ma moc nominalna prawie 19MW i charakteryzuje się sprawnością
46%. Ten nowy produkt jest odpowiedzią na zapotrzebowanie rynku silników gazowych oraz rosnących
oczekiwań branży zdecentralizowanej energetyki charakteryzującej się wysoka pewnością działania oraz
elastycznością pracy obiektów.
Artykuł zaprezentuje dane techniczne silnika Wärtsilä 18V50SG. Opis będzie również zawierał tło całego
procesu rozwoju nowego silnika oraz parametry operacyjne silnika takie jak osiągi, emisje oraz wymogi
odnośnie paliwa gazowego, którym silnik może być zasilany. Dodatkowo najważniejsze komponenty silnika oraz
zastosowana technologia zostaną uwzględnione w artykule.
Ponadto artykuł przedstawi tez typowe zastosowania silnika Wärtsilä 18V50SG obejmując również
najnowsza elektrownie koncepcyjna dla zdecentralizowanej wysokosprawnej energetyki. Ta część obejmuje
również główne aspekty pracy tego silnika.
Słowa kluczowe: czterosuwowy silnik gazowy o zapłonie iskrowym zasilany mieszanka uboga

1. Introduction one and is dedicated to very efficient Wärtsilä gas

The history of Wärtsilä gas engines starts in
1987 when the first gas-diesel engine was intro-
duced. This technology was mainly dedicated to
offshore applications, although it also could be used
for power generation.
In 1992 the development of the lean-burn spark-
ignited gas engine has started and the first spark-
ignited gas engine was released in [5, 6]. The en-
gine offered very good performance and clean
combustion (lean gas mixture) with self-learning
and self-adjustable functions in control system.
At the end of 20th century, the high-efficiency
lean-burn Wärtsilä 34SG engine family based on
the new Wärtsilä 32 diesel engine frame was intro-
duced. This new engine family has replaced the old
power plants.
New trends in power generation require com-
bined high-efficiency, high-flexibility and high-
reliability technology. Decentralised power genera-
tion stations are getting bigger and they have to
have several functions in energy system: grid stabil-
ity, peak power generation, base-load operation etc.
This creates many challenges and out-dated tech-
nology needs to be replaced. The Wärtsilä
18V50SG, the world’s biggest four-stroke spark-
ignited gas engine is a response for these require-
ments. The engine introduced in 2010 provides
power around 19 MW combined with high-
efficiency and flexibility. A huge experience gained
by Wärtsilä over many years of gas engines devel-

1
opment results in high reliability and operation
availability.
2. Engine technology & design
The Wärtsilä 18V50SG engine benefits from
well-proven Wärtsilä lean-burn spark-ignited gas
engine concept as well as from the Wärtsilä
18V50DF dual-fuel engine technology. The Wärt-
silä 18V50SG engine is built on the same frame
like the Wärtsilä 50DF and the Wärtsilä 18V46
diesel engine.
The Wärtsilä 18V50SG is turbo-charged four-
stroke medium-speed engine with ported gas injec-
tion and a spark ignition system with a pre-
chamber. The engine stroke is 580 mm (the same
like in the Wärtsilä 18V46) and bore is 500 mm
(increased from 460 mm like in Wärtsilä
18V50DF). The main engine data are presented in
the Table 1.
Table 1. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG engine data [9]
Cylinder configuration 18V
Cylinder bore / stroke 500 / 580 mm
Speed 500 or 514 rpm
Mean piston speed 9.7 or 9.9 m/s
Compression ratio 11:1
V-angle 45°
Engine length 12 460 mm
Engine width 4 420 mm
Engine height 5 160 mm
Engine weight 217 000 kg
A nodular cast has been chosen for the engine
block due to its strength and stiffness. Advanced
foundry technology results in a pipe-free engine
block with integrated oil and water channels. The
engine block has large crankcase covers for easy
maintenance access. The crankshaft design provides
very good bearing conditions and very high stiff-
ness, since the cylinder spacing is only 1100 mm.
Each cylinder liner is equipped with two sensors for
continuous temperature monitoring. Typically for
Wärtsilä engines, pistons are made of the low-
friction composite type with aluminium skirt and
forged steel top.
The Wärtsilä 18V50SG engine has been de-
signed for optimal cooling and heat recovery. The
open-interface cooling system has four circuits:
cylinder cooling (jacket), charge-air high-
temperature cooling, charge-air low-temperature
cooling and lube-oil cooling. The lubricating oil
system includes a wet oil sump, an engine-driven
main pump as well as an electrically driven pre-
lubricating pump, cooler and filters. The pre-
lubricating system is used before engine starting; it
helps to reduce wear of engine components.
A specially designed pre-chamber combines low
NOx emission, extended spark plug life, rapid igni-
tion and stable combustion with high combustion
efficiency. Its shape was developed from smaller
spark-ignited gas engine i.e. Wärtsilä 20V34SG,
optimized with 3-dimentional CFD simulations and
then verified during many hours of engine test runs.
The ignition module is integrated into the Wärtsilä
Engine Control System (WECS), which sets the
global ignition timing. The module itself sets indi-
vidual ignition timing for each cylinder to provide
the most efficient combustion and to avoid knock.
The spark plug was developed together with spark
plug suppliers to withstand high cylinder pressures
and temperatures which negatively affect typical
spark plug lifetime.
In the Wärtsilä 18V50SG, engine ported-gas-
admission technology is used which is identical to
the one from Wärtsilä 18V50DF and eliminates the
risk of backfire in the air intake manifold, gives a
good load response and enables a different delivery
of gas fuel to each cylinder. The main gas admis-
sion valves are located right upstream of the inlet
valves. Each cylinder is controlled separately by
WECS, which is continuously monitoring parame-
ters like engine load and speed, exhaust tempera-
tures and pressure inside each cylinder. The pre-
chamber receives gas via mechanically-driven hy-
draulically- controlled valve. This solution has
proven to be very reliable and provides excellent
ignition properties of pre-chamber mixture.
All Wärtsilä 18V34SG engines are equipped
with two turbo-chargers, which were chosen for
their minimum flow losses and very good effi-
ciency. A charge air pressure reaches 450 kPa at
full load operation. The engine has a pneumatic
starting system with starting valves in the cylinder
heads on one bank only. Valves are operated by an
air distributor while starting limiter valves switch
off the starting system as soon as the engine runs.
The Table 2 presents typical life time for main
the Wärtsilä 18V50SG engine components. The
components life time is based only on total operat-
ing hours and the engine starts, stops or loading
history have no influence on maintenance schedule.
Table 2. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG main components
life time [9]
Typical life time
Engine component
(operating hours)
Piston 72 000
Piston rings 18 000
Cylinder liner 96 000
Cylinder head 72 000
Inlet valve and valve seat 36 000
Exhaust valve and valve seat 36 000
Crankshaft bearings 36 000
Camshaft bearing 72 000
Main gas admission valve 24 000
Pre-chamber valve 18 000
Pre-chamber 36 000
2
 Ignition coil on plug 18 000 and loading procedures are shown in the Figures 2
and 3.

3. Engine operation & performance Table 3. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG gas fuel re-
quirements for continuous full load operation [9]
In lean-burn engines, the peak temperature is Lower heating value Min. 28 MJ/m³
kept low which results in a low NOx emission, Methane number Min. 70
reduces the knock tendency and enables a high Methane contents, CH4 Min. 70%
thermal efficiency. Unfortunately, too lean mixture Hydrogen sulphide, H2S Max. 0.05%
can lead to misfiring and high emission of unburned Hydrogen, H2 Max. 3%
hydrocarbons. The WECS is designed to control
Condensates Not Allowed
every cylinder separately and to keep each cylinder
Ammonia Max. 25 mg/m³
in its optimal operating window (Fig.1).
Chlorine + Fluorine Max. 50 mg/m³
Particles or solids 50 mg/m³
Max.
(content and size) 5 m
Gas inlet temperature Range 0 – 60 °C

Table 4. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG performance

data at full load [9]
Mean effective pressure 2.20 MPa
Maximum firing pressure 17.8 MPa
1045 kW (500 rpm)
Power per cylinder
1070 kW (514 rpm)
Engine mechanical effi-
90%
ciency
Engine overall efficiency 47.4%
Electricity generating set
46.2%
efficiency
Fig.1. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG cylinder optimal NOx emission 1.2 g/kWh
operating window [8] CO emission 1.06 g/kWh
HC emission 3.2 g/kWh
The system is based on cylinder pressure meas-
Typical CO2 414 g/kWh
urements supported by exhaust gas temperature
Particulates emission 0,064 g/kWh
measurements, engine speed measurements and
Formaldehyde 0,27 g/kWh
turbocharger speed measurements. The engine can
operate at 500 rpm or 514 rpm and the brake mean Total sound power level 129 dBA
effective pressure is equal to 2.2 MPa, which pro-
vides 1045 kW (at 500 rpm) or 1070 kW (at 514
rpm) of power per cylinder with a maximum firing
pressure of 17.8 MPa. The engine has 90% me-
chanical efficiency and over 47% overall effi-
ciency.
The engine is usually integrated with an electri-
cal generator on a common frame base with elec-
tricity generating efficiency of the set 46%, which
results in 18320 kW of electrical power at 500 rpm
[8, 9]. The gas fuel requirements for continuous
engine operation at full load are presented in the
Table 3 and the engine performance data are pre-
sented in the Table 4. Fig. 2. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG start-up procedure (514
The Wärtsilä 18V50SG engine is design accord- rpm nominal speed) [9]
ing to the newest requirements regarding flexible
power generation. The engine is able to reach full The successive loading can be combined with
load within 10 minutes from start signal. The en- load steps, if the engine is operating in island mode
gine efficiency doesn’t change much over very (speed control). The minimum continuous load is
wide load range (from 50% to 100% load), which is 30%. The maximum permissible load step which
very beneficial when part load operation is required may be applied at any given load is presented in the
for a longer time. In emergency situation the engine Figure 4. Furthermore the stated values are limited
can start-up and load-up even quicker. The start-up to a running engine that has reached nominal oper-

3
 ating temperatures, or for an engine which has been
operated at above 30% load within the last 30 min-
utes.
Fig. 3. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG loading and unloading
curves [9]
Fig. 4. The Wärtsilä 18V50SG instant loading steps [9]
4. Typical applications
All Wärtsilä gas engines can be used as a power
source in pumping stations for pipelines and the
dual-fuel engines can be also used for marine pur-
poses. The Wärtsilä spark-ignited gas engines and
dual-fuel ones are mainly dedicated for power gen-
eration applications. Wärtsilä gas power plants can
operate in parallel to the grid or in island mode.
They can be controlled at site or remotely and can
be connected to condition based maintenance centre
where Wärtsilä service personnel has access to
plant operation system, as well as engine operation
system and they even check signals from particular
sensors mounted on the engine.
The Wärtsilä has delivered already more than
700 spark-ignited engines to more than 200 gas
power plants and their total power is more than
5000 MW. Also the Wärtsilä 46 and the Wärtsilä
50DF that share frame and components design with
Wärtsilä 50SG have impressive reference record:
more than 700 engines and more than 10 GW of
their total power.
The Wärtsilä 18V50SG engine is meant to re-
place the Wärtsilä 20V34SG in new gas power
plants projects with plant output over 150 MW. The
engine can operate on pipeline quality natural gas
as well as on liquefied natural gas (LNG). Typical
Wärtsilä gas power plants are used as power source
for industry (mining, cement, petroleum etc.), for
local utilities (airports, hotels etc.) or as part of an
electrical grid system.
The engine can be core part of combined cycle
gas power plant. This solution requires exhaust gas
steam boilers and a steam turbine. By implementing
this power generation capacity of plant can be in-
creased by 8% to 10% and electricity generation
efficiency can reach totally over 50%.
The Plains End power plant is excellent exam-
ple of the Wärtsilä spark-ignited engine application
as important part of an electricity generation system
(Fig. 5). The plant is located in Denver in USA.
The first phase (Plains End I) was delivered in 2002
and has twenty Wärtsilä 18V34SG engines generat-
ing together 111 MW with 41% of electricity gen-
eration efficiency. Originally plant was meant to be
peaking power plant started once per day only for
covering peak power demand. Soon after plant
operation started client (PG&E National Energy
Group) discovered great potential for flexible gas
fired power plants and has changed operation pro-
file by providing grid stability service as support for
growing wind power plants capacity in that region.
The client also ordered the extension of existing
power plant (Plains End II) with fourteen Wärtsilä
20V34SG engines providing additional 118 MW
with 44% of electricity generating efficiency. The
Plains End gas power plant can generate up to 230
MW and full power of the plant can be reached in
less than 5min. The plant is started and ramped-up
when wind generated electricity decreases as a
result of wind behaviour. This kind of operation
requires over 1000 starts and stops per year on
average. The short start-up time or frequent starts
has no influence on the maintenance schedule.
Fig. 5. Examples of Wärtsilä power plants as typical
applications of the Wärtsilä 18V50SG. Top: 230 MW
flexible grid stability gas power plant Plains End I &
II (Denver, USA); bottom: 308 MW base load gas
power plant Sangachal (Azerbaijan) [1]
4
 Another potential application example for the
Wärtsilä 18V50SG comes from the Caspian Sea
area. The largest so far Wärtsilä gas power plant is
located in Azerbaijan. The plant is based on eight-
een Wärtsilä 18V50DF gas engines and is located
near the biggest oil terminal in that region. This 308
MW gas power plant started operation at the end of
2008 and is a very important component of the
country power generation system.
5. Summary
The Wärtsilä 18V50SG gas engine is the newest
Wärtsilä lean-burn gas engine dedicated to the most
efficient large Wärtsilä gas power plants. The en-
gine is the world’s biggest 4-stroke spark-ignited
gas engine and its design is based on advanced
technology and sophisticated solutions providing
excellent performance, reliable operation, easy
maintenance and long life of engine components.
The Wärtsilä 18V50SG is a very efficient
(47.4% overall efficiency) and powerful (over 19
Nomenclature / Skróty i oznaczenia
WECS Wärtsilä Engine Control System / silnikowy
system automatyki i sterowania wärtsilä
Bibliography / Literatura
[1] “Gas power plants”, Wärtsilä Corporation
brochure
[2] Klimstra J.: The road to obtaining the ultimate
performance of gas engines – opportunities
and challenges, 5th Dessau Gas Engine Con-
ference proceedings, 2007
[3] Kuurio H.: Wärtsilä large gas power plants – a
modular approach offering a wide range of
capabilities, Twentyfour7 Wärtsilä Quarterly
Magazine 03.2006, pp. 44-45, 2006
[4] Sutkowski M.: The combustion systems in the
high-power stationary internal combustion
engines, XX International Symposium on
Combustion Process proceedings, 2007
Mr Marek Sutkowski, PhD, MSc, Eng. – Senior
Development Manager in Gas Plants at Wärtsilä
Finland.
Dr inż. Marek Sutkowski – starszy kierownik
ds. rozwoju w dziale elektrowni gazowych,
Wärtsilä Finland.
MW) engine suitable for flexible power generation.
The engine can operate on pipeline quality natural
gas or on liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The engine maintenance schedule is based on
operating hours and is independent from the num-
ber of start and stops. The multi-unit design enables
high part-load plant efficiency, excellent plant
availability and reduced need for back-up capacity.
A start-up procedure and engine loading-up to full
load takes all together only 10 minutes.
Wärtsilä gas power plants with Wärtsilä
18V50SG engines offer also combined cycle solu-
tion which increases plant efficiency to the level of
50%. It provides also stepwise investment with
smaller risk and optimized profit generation. Wärt-
silä gas power plants provide full integration and
excellent flexibility and high performance in all
ambient conditions, which is a valuable characteris-
tic for modern decentralized power generation.
WOIS Wärtsilä Operators Interface System / inter-
fejs systemu operacyjnego Wärtsilä
[5] Sutkowski M., Latvasalo T.: The 20V34SG –
a high-efficiency lean-burn gas engine for
highly efficient Wärtsilä gas power plants
combustion systems in the high-power sta-
tionary internal combustion engines, Combus-
tion Engines PTNSS-2007-SC1, pp. 27-38,
2007, PL ISSN 0138-0346
[6] “Wärtsilä 34SG engine technology”, Wärtsilä
Corporation brochure
[7] “Wärtsilä 50DF engine technology”, Wärtsilä
Corporation brochure
[8] “Wärtsilä 50SG engine technology”, Wärtsilä
Corporation brochure
[9] “Wärtsilä 50SG performance manual”, Wärt-
silä report