Americas News
US Shipper Wins ECA Exemption During $18 Million Scrubber Retrofits
U.S-based Horizon Lines, Inc. has been granted an exemption from Emission Control Area (ECA) sulfur limits while the company installs scrubbers on three vessels traveling the Washington to Alaska routes, the company has announced.
The company says that the installation of the scrubber systems aboard its three Horizon D7-class vessels will cost $18 million.
The scrubbers, which are multiple inlet hybrid systems, are designed and supplied by Alfa Laval Aalborg Nijmegen BV, and were said to be the first of its kind for a Jones Act container vessel.
Installation is expected to take place from September 2015 through to the end of 2016.
Its not the first time US authorities have granted such an exception to allow shippers to adopt alternative methods of ECA compliance.
In 2012, when the North American ECA was first introduced, Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) received a conditional permit exempting it from the new sulfur emissions rules while it converted two vessels to use Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as their primary fuel source.
More recently, last month it was reported that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has also been granted a similar exemption to install scrubber systems on 19 ships.
