China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) unveiled the "Qiyao" marine engine family, a self-developed series powered by green energy sources, at Marintec China 2025, one of China's largest maritime exhibitions, that opened on Tuesday in Shanghai.

Capable of running on ammonia, methanol, and hydrogen, the engines were awarded the world's first approval-in-principle certificate for ammonia–hydrogen marine fuel engines by the China Classification Society.

The series is designed to meet the growing demand for high-performance, low-carbon engines of inland river, coastal, and deep-sea vessels, as well as offshore platforms, marking a major step in China's green ship power solutions.

"In recent years, an increasing number of new ship orders require new-energy propulsion, covering diverse power supplies, including LNG, methanol, ammonia, as well as hybrid systems with batteries. This is also the key direction for future maritime power development," said Qiu Aihua, deputy director of CSSC's 711 Research Institute.

Qiu emphasized that after making breakthroughs in green-fuel engines, there is an urgent need to accelerate collaboration across the industry chain, and expedite the construction of supporting infrastructure for the production, transportation, and bunkering of marine green fuels.
"China is actively advancing methanol and ammonia fuel production, a step that leverages the country's wind and solar advantages to form a competitive domestic supply chain. The self-developed high-performance medium-speed ammonia engine released at the exhibition has achieved an ammonia substitution rate of 86 percent, making it a globally leading product that helps build a complete, self-reliant green maritime power industry chain," added Qiu.