Dave Ficken wrote:

Part of the efficiency equation is that waste heat is recovered from
the exhaust and cooling water. The jacket water from the engine is run
through an evaporater. We were able to make 24 metric tons of fresh
water a day from a single effect evaporator running off the jacket
water. We also had a larger double-effect evaporator with a greater
capacity that used steam heat. Exhaust gases from the main engine pass
through a Turbo charger, followed by a waste-heat boiler and create
steam when the engine is running. The waste heat boiler was not enough
to run the Double-effect evaporator by itself, so an auxilliary
oil-fired boiler would supplement as needed. The aux boiler is also
needed in port.

Dave,
They claim: "At maximum economy the engine exceeds 50% thermal
efficiency. That is, more than 50% of the energy in the fuel in converted
to motion."

This is the generally agreed definition of thermal efficiency (work output
divided by thermal energy input). I didn't think it was possible to get
this high an efficiency from a Diesel cycle, is it? Maybe they are taking
credit for re-using heat rejected from the process as you implied?