The largest diesel engine ever created by humans: the one that powers the Emma Maersk

The Emma Maersk is a big, huge container ship. With their 397 meters in lengtha gross tonnage of 170,974 tons and cargo capacity for more than 10,000 standard containers is a titan that came to stand out as the largest ship of its class ever built.

Its great strength, which makes it a fascinating ship, is however its metal “heart” and pistons, hidden from the curious among its gears: the ship moves thanks to the enormous Wärtsilä RT-flex96Cthe largest and most powerful diesel engine ever built.

The merit has even been recognized by Guinness World Records, which on their official website introduces it as “the biggest engine in the world”. Merits it has to occupy that position, of course: with 27 meters in length, 13.5 m in height and a weight of 2,300 tons, it looks more like a house than a huge 14-cylinder engine. precise Wärtsilä that the mill, which entered service more than a decade and a half ago, in September 2006, reaches a power that exceeds 114,000 CV.

Capacity… and an XXL engine

“Traditionally low speed marine engines have been built with a maximum of 12 cylinders. When it was recognized some years ago that the planned containerships would need more than was available on the existing RTA96C and RT-flex96C engines, a solution was found to extend the engine power range to 80,080 kW.” pointed out in 2006 Wärtsilä.

In The datasheet of the Emma it is noted that the internal diameter of the cylinder is just under 96.5 centimeters and the stroke is around 249 cm. Another curious fact is that its crankshaft alone weighs 300 tons. The Wärtsilä RT-flex96C is a two-stroke turbodiesel block with a displacement of 25,480 liters and, for reference, its pistons are 6 m high and weigh about 5.5 tons each.

Its dimensions and energy are impressive, but the leap in engineering, as Wärysilä acknowledgeswas essential for live up to Emma, another mega-infrastructure that marked a milestone in its day. As Maersk recalls, when the ship was launched it became the largest container ship in the world and even some time later it continued to stand out in the oceans due to its length.

On board it can transport between 13,500 and 14,600 TEU —twenty-foot equivalenta standard unit of cargo—, although according to the parameters that Maersk follows, the data would remain at about 11,000.

Over time, maritime traffic was endowed with other titans for the transport of containers capable of overshadowing the Emma, ​​such as the Ever Given399.9 meters long with a beam of 58.8 m and famous for the incident that he starred in 2021 in the Suez Canal; but that does not detract from Emma Maersk and the fascinating and huge secret that hides behind a helmet.

Cover image: Kees Torn (Flickr)