Engine firm Everllence, formerly MAN Energy Solutions, has successfully run its dual-fuel marine engine running on ethanol at its facilities in Frederikshavn, Denmark.

The engine operated on ethanol across all load points, building on its earlier work with methanol-fuelled engines, the company said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

Everllence added the latest tests provide a working engine platform that can be used to document ethanol’s potential as a marine fuel.

Interest in ethanol as a marine fuel has been growing, with discussions at the IBIA Annual Convention in Hong Kong last month highlighting increased attention on the fuel.

Container line Maersk is also testing a higher ethanol-to-methanol ratio on one of its vessels, compared with earlier trials using lower blends.

“This engine platform has shown great promise when burning alternative fuels and, during testing, we even managed to expand the ethanol fuel-share compared with methanol,” Rasmus Frimann Nielsen, senior manager and head of four-stroke small-bore engineering at Everllence, said in the statement.

“In general, the past few years have seen steadily growing interest in ethanol from the market.”

Everllence introduced its first commercial two-stroke methanol engine in 2016 and launched a small-bore, four-stroke methanol generator in 2024, with several units already in commercial operation.