Brittany Ferries Installs "Perfectly" Working Marine Scrubber System

The company said the project was impressive given that the vessel had been built before scrubber installations had ever been considered.

Yara Marine Technologies (Yara) Wednesday said Brittany Ferries has successfully installed one of its scrubber systems aboard the ferry Normandie and the device is working "perfectly". 

Brittany Ferries director Stephen Tuckwell said that with the current price differential of low-sulfur marine gas oil (LSMGO) and heavy fuel oil (HFO) at around 40 percent, the cost of installing the system would be written off over three years.

The system installed is MED certified from Bureau Veritas, with the project executed by STX France. 

"The timescale was impressive for a 'first job' of this nature, carried out on a comparatively old ship which was designed and built well before the possibility of scrubber installations was ever considered," said Brittany Ferries. 

The scrubbers will help the Normandie adhere to the new 0.10 percent sulfur cap in Emission control Areas (ECAs) as it operates between Portsmouth and Caen.

"Much of this is down to the choice of the particular compact system supplied by Yara Marine Technologies (former Green Tech Marine) of Norway, which is almost entirely contained in enlarged funnel with little other alteration to the ship proving necessary," said Brittany. 

"Compared with some other ferry scrubber conversions, which have involved lengthening the ship to accommodate the extra equipment, the result is particularly neat."

Late last year it was reported that Brittany Ferries abandoned its liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker plans after deeming the January 1, 2015 start date for stricter ECA regulations too inflexible.