Wiki: World largest engine! Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C [w/video]

You own a car with a 5.0-LITER engine? And you think is large? Well … it is in some way… But take a look at this little boy ☺ The Wartsila NSD (Sulzer) RTA96-C two-stroke diesel engine.

This is the most powerful and most efficient piston prime-mover in the world today.

Hmmm .. yes your right- it’s not used for cars ☺ is designed for large container ships, running on heavy fuel oil.

It stands at (13.5 metres (44 ft)) high, is 27.3 m (90 ft) long, and weighs over 2300 tonnes in its largest 14-cylinder version — producing 109,000 brake horsepower (81.3 MW). !

That’s the power of almost 110 veyron’s, and if the weight of the average adult person is 70 kilogrammes, this engine has a weight equivalent to the weight of 33,000 people.

The engine was put into service in September 2006 aboard the Emma Mærsk, the first container ship in the E-class (The Maersk E Series comprises eight 14,770 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container ships. )

Fuel consumption at maximum power is 0.278 lbs/HP/hour (BSFC). Fuel consumption at maximum economy is 0.260 lbs/HP/hour. At maximum economy the Sulzer engine exceeds 50% thermal efficiency: i.e. more than 50% of the fuel going into the engine is converted to power. So, even at its most efficient power setting, the Sulzer 12 cylinder consumes nearly 1,660 gallons of heavy fuel oil an hour, ~ $6,800 per Hour.

The design and development of the RTA96C was close collaboration with the companies involved in the early stages of the first commercial project: the owner and operator P&O Nedlloyd BV, the ship designer and builder Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries Co Ltd (IHI), and the enginebuilder Diesel United Ltd.
25 of these engines are currently in service.