Emma Maersk's Wärtsilä-Sulzer Super Ship Engine

Back… Click HERE to read Part 1 of our Mega Engine Series

The Emma Maersk’s Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel ship engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover of super ships in the world today.

The RTA96-C is the largest engine in the world and is available in 6 through 14 cylinder versions, all are inline engines. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships but similar large diesel engines run large ships of all kinds. Ship owners like the combination of a single engine and single propeller for reasons of efficiency and cost of production vs operation of these mega-vessels. As ships continue to get larger with new generations of larger container ships being built each year shippers like Emma’s owner, A.P. Møller – Mærsk, will need a bigger engines to propel them.

To help relate to the size of this monstrous engine consider that one cylinder bore alone is just under 38″ and the stroke is just over 98″. And the alone engine weighs in at 2,300 tons and is capable of delivering 109,000 horsepower.

The following photos are from Aioi Works of Japan’s Diesel United who built the first engines for Emma and her sister ships.

The largest piston in the world!

More Enormous Piston Rods.

“DU-Sulzer 12RT A96C” translated to “One large MFD”

How it works.

So you’re wondering what this behemoth powers… right? Nothing less impressive than the

Emma Maersk

The Emma Maersk, underway at full speed.

Small tugboat pulls the world’s largest ship into port.

Emma Maersk as she looks from the sky.

A Comparison of the World’s Largest Ships (from the Wall Street Journal) . We hate to tell the world’s premier business newspaper they forgot one… but they did. Larger than Emma Maersk is the The Ultra Large Crude Carrier (now a FPSO) Knock Nevis ... formerly known as Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, and Jahre Viking.