To quote myself from the last time this type thread surfaced...

I work for the company that makes a similar engine - or should I say designs similar engines. Today almost all large 2-stroke engines like that are "license built" in that Hyundai or, or any of many other such companies around the world, builds the engine to our design. We design the engine, the licensee company builds it.

These engines are started with compressed air at 435 psig (30 barg). Air is let into the engine thru a special valve in the cylinder head and presses directly on the piston. There is an air distributor which, when the piston reaches the bottom of the stroke, changes the air inlet to another cylinder. If you put 435 psig on to a piston which is 96 cm (~38") in diameter, a little bit of math tells you that you have almost 500,000 lbs of force on that piston. Do the math - it's surprising what a little compressed air can do. Of course the pressure drops once the piston starts down, etc. etc.

So you can actually start one of these engines with an itty bitty air compressor, and a BIG air tank. It just takes a good bit of time to fill the air tank!

These engines do run on No. 6 fuel oil, aka Bunker fuel oil, aka heavy fuel oil, which does have to be heated to roughly 250F to obtain the correct viscosity for injection (actual temperature depends how bad the fuel is). Normally the engines can start and stop on this fuel as it is kept circulating hot even when the engine is stopped. But for long shutdowns and cold starts, we do use diesel fuel. Typically, steam produced by exhaust gas boilers (waste heat recovery) is used to heat the fuel oil.

Rgds,
Chris W.