Development possibilities of modern coal-fired marine propulsion plant

Interruption in the development of marine propulsion steam turbine plant design has been going on for a more of five decades. During that period of time great changes in marine propulsion plant occurred. manufacturer of marine engines developed constructions of very efficient "heavy fuel" slow speed two-stroke diesel engines. Today we can talk about the absolute domination of diesel engines in the field of cargo ship propulsion. But the knowledge about the crude oil and coal world resources, the growing ecological constraints on ship exploitation, as well as the experience of a strong influence of political factors on the price of crude oil, cause the need for researching possibilities of repeated use of coal-fired steam turbine power plant for several types of merchant ships. The paper present several development possibilities of modern propulsion plants with coal-fired boilers.