Scrubbing Expected To Become "Fairly Standard" on Ships

Wood Mackenzie expects scrubbers to be used to tackle ship emissions.

Scrubbing technology is expected to become "fairly standard on ships," Lindsay Sword, a senior analyst at energy and metals research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie told Reuters today.

"It's not a really proven and well used technology yet, but we cannot see how the refining industry globally would be able to cope otherwise," she said.

When operating inside an Emission Control Area (ECA), marine fuel sulfur content is limited to 1.00% by weight until 2015, after which that limit falls to 0.10%.

According to the report, Europe in particular will have problems making the required volume of low-sulfur fuel, saying it is structurally short of the more expensive ECA compliant diesel fuel which is lower in sulfur, and its older refineries cannot be modified to produce more diesel without "significant investment and lengthy shutdowns."

"What would they blend into their existing fuel oil pool to get the sulfur content down from 3.5 percent? It would need something very low sulfur. It just would not make any economic sense for them to do it," said Sword.

Scrubbing technology, by contrast, allows ships to use existing high Sulfur fuel as it removes pollutants from the exhaust gases of ships, which can then either be turned into sulphates and deposited into the sea, or kept on-board the vessel in a "closed loop" scrubbing system.

Another solution is use of alternative fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), the emissions from which meet current and planned emission standards.

Some coastal shippers who now permanently operate their vessels inside an ECA believe that LNG is the solution to the low-sulfur problem, with Totem Ocean Trailer Express President John Parrott telling Ship & Bunker earlier this month it was "the future of coast wide shipping."

LNG is also being touted as having a cost benefit compared to its petroleum counterparts, with India's Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R.P.N. Singh saying LNG can provide savings of almost a third compared to crude oil.