Large Diesel, Gas and Dual Fuel engines on board vessels do bear a certain danger in their daily operation. Between 1990 and 2001 143 crankcase explosions were reported to Lloyds Register (LR). LR have about 20% of the worlds shipping in its class. If we use that as a factor, we can estimate reported incidents were 715 in 11 years or about 65 a year. These are reportable incidents, those where the damage had to be reported as major repair or has resulted in injury. Minor incidents may have gone unreported. It is possible that the actual number of incidents is much higher – maybe 3 per week.

 *CIMAC congress 2010, paper No. 53, page 12

Following SOLAS regulations, engines of size 2250 KW and above/or min. 300mm cylinder bore are to be equipped compulsory with safety measures to aviod crankcase explosion caused by igniting oil mist e.g. produced by failing bearings.