IPO for Recyled Bunkers Company

Ecoslops uses a five step process to separate bunkers from slops

French fuel recycling company Ecoslops this month launched an initial public offering (IPO) to list on Euronext Paris's Alternext market, following successful trials the company says could "transform [the handling of] maritime hydrocarbon waste," French media reports.

Ecoslops has developed a process, using a vacuum cylinder, to distill useable marine fuel oil from ships' "slops," the name given to a mix of fuel, water, sediment and other pollutants. 

The process is currently able to recover around 80 percent of the fuel contained within the slops, but the company hopes to refine the process to capture around 92 percent.

"The strength of our model is that in an environment of cheap oil or expensive oil, ships will always produce slops and will always need marine fuel to operate," said CEO Michel Pingeot.

The company should break even at a bunker price of $300 per metric tonne (mt), given that it expects to pay little or nothing for its raw material, he added.

The shipping industry produces around 98 million tonnes of petroleum waste per year and Ecoslops has already signed a deal to handle waste from the world's second largest container shipping company, MSC.

The move follows a "world first" successful pilot of the technology at a site in Sines, Portugal.

The company plans to sign a facility each year for the next three years, meaning 3 additional projects by 2017, of which they are already considering projects at Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and Singapore.

While he said there was no such thing as a "typical project," Pingeot said the aim was to get each site up and running within a year of signing a deal and would expect an investment of around €14 million ($16 million) per site would be necessary.

The realities of each project will differ depending on the existing infrastructure of the ports, among other variables.

Pingeot said the projects will be funded through a variety of means, including debt, grants, and subsidies, and stressed that the company expects to use cash-flow from the Sines project as well.

Alfa Laval's PureDry system, in use by Tallink Grupp amongst others, is said to enable ships to recover and burn waste fuel.