Marine Industry Will Ultimately Acknowledge and Use Scrubbers for 2020: Quadrise

Mike Kirk, Chairman, Quadrise Fuels International plc. Image Credit: Quadrise

Quadrise Fuels International plc (Quadrise) today has reiterated its belief that the shipping industry will ultimately choose to use scrubbers in conjunction with burning HFO when the global 0.50 percent sulfur cap on marine fuel goes into force in 2020.

The comments came alongside news that company received the Interim Inspection Report provided by Wartsila from Maersk as part of the now cancelled marine trial of its MSAR emulsion bunker fuel.

"This detailed engineering report underpins the Interim LONO that was provided by Wartsila for the use of MSARR fuel in its RT Flex 2‐stroke diesel engines, details of which were provided in QFI's announcement dated 21 June 2017. This concludes the process of obtaining the supporting information related to the marine operational and LONO trial with Maersk," Quadrise said in a statement released today.

"QFI will continue to use the knowledge gained from the Maersk trial in conjunction with its in‐house and third party research to further enhance the Company's offering to the marine and power markets."

As previously reported by Ship & Bunker, Maersk had been participating in a trial using a high sulfur variant of the MSAR emulsion bunkers in conjunction with a scrubber, but in May cut the test short.

Niels Henrik Lindegaard, Head of Maersk Oil Trading, since explained to Ship & Bunker that the company will seek compliance in 2020 not with scrubbers, but through the use of alternative fuels.

"I am pleased that we have been able to obtain the Interim Inspection Report relating to the Marine Operational and LONO trial and we will be using this to further enhance our existing business development activities which are not reliant on any continuing collaboration with Maersk. We will not be publishing the Inspection Report, but a precis will be produced and uploaded to the website in due course," said Mike Kirk, Executive Chairman, Quadrise.

"QFI continues to believe that the marine industry will ultimately acknowledge and adopt the use of exhaust gas scrubbers and high sulphur heavy fuel as the most economic compliance option for the International Maritime Organisation's 2020 sulphur limit environmental legislation and that Marine MSARR will enable operators to obtain additional economic and environmental advantages over the use of heavy fuel oil."

How others will comply with the new rules continues to be a topic of much debate; Last month box carrier OOCL told Ship & Bunker there are still "fundamental issues" to be resolved before planning can begin for 2020.