Bhagwan hybrid lives up to hype

It was big news back in 2014 when a 57-metre vessel with four Cummins generator sets at the heart of its hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system was put into service by Bhagwan Marine, a major Australian service provider to the offshore oil and gas industries.

Bhagwan reported remarkable fuel savings for the highly advanced Dryden, a catamaran that was using around 65% less fuel a day in a like-for-like comparison with the company’s conventional diesel vessels.

The advanced power management system was said to be the secret, making optimal use of the four Cummins generator sets and a battery bank to ensure each power source was used in the most effective way.

Eight years later, Bhagwan’s initial hopes for long engine life –– two of the generators are powered by Cummins’ QSK19 engine rated at 400 kW while the other two are powered by the Cummins QSK38 rated at 950 kW – have been fulfilled.

In-vessel rebuilds of the four engines have recently been completed in a major project in Dampier headed up by Cummins Karratha operations manager Glen Evans. 

Cummins’ QSK reputation for long life

All engines reached 30,000 hours with no major issues, underpinning the reputation of Cummins’ high horsepower QSK powerplants for long life-to-overhaul.

“There was fierce competition to win the rebuild work from external marine engine repairers, but Cummins was the preferred option with our high level of technical capability and the fact we offered genuine and recon parts,” says Glen Evans.

“These major works were completed in Dampier with collaborative effort from the Cummins teams in Karratha, Bunbury, Perth and Newman to meet the labour, tooling and parts requirements.”

Bhagwan Marine, established by the Kannikoski family in Geraldton (WA) in 2000, has since morphed into one of the largest and most diverse fleets servicing Australia’s oil and gas industry and port development sector. 

The Dryden was designed from the keel up to work in shallow waters and perform six key roles: dive support, geophysical survey, geotechnical survey, cargo transport, hyperbaric rescue and safety standby. 

The Cummins generators can be powered up in stages to minimise fuel burn while a battery bank stores enough power to propel the ship for short periods. Among the vessel's features is its dynamic positioning system achieved through multi-directional stern drives and bow thrusters. 

Confident of generator reliability

"The Dryden was a special vessel from the outset," says Cummins Perth's Peter Brookes, who was instrumental in the specification of the generator sets for the vessel. "The critical requirement was reliability and we were confident our generators would provide this.

“We sourced a lot of information from our mining team on various aspects of the QSK engine product in high load factor operations, including projected life-to-overhaul.

"Injector life was one example. Our expectations were that with Fleetguard Nanonet filtration and the use of low sulphur fuel, the injectors would last the life of the engines which has been the case."

Bhagwan embraced Cummins’ latest high horsepower diesel engine technology for the Dryden, with both the 19-litre QSK19 and 38-litre QSK38 featuring the high-pressure modular common rail fuel system (MCRS) that has proven benefits.

Since it was introduced on Cummins' high horsepower engines, MCRS technology has highlighted improvements in fuel consumption, reliability and extended life to rebuild. Other key benefits are significantly reduced noise and vibration.