Other Study Comes Out in Favour of Open-Loop Scrubbers

CSA 2020 Executive Committee Member Poul Woodall, Director, Environment & Sustainability, DFDS. Image Credit: CSA 2020

Scrubber advocates Clean Shipping Alliance 2020 (CSA 2020) have welcomed the preliminary findings of an ongoing study by CE Delft that shows washwater from open-loop scrubbers is well below applicable regulatory limits.

The study, sponsored by CLIA Europe and Interferry, is being conducted in collaboration with Deltares and uses their computer model to analyse three common configurations of European ports.

The study uses wash water samples taken from the scrubber tower outlet of cruise ships, bulk carriers and ferries, and assumes that multiple ships in each modelled port are using open loop scrubbers around the clock throughout the year.

"So far, for all parameters considered, the equilibrium concentrations are indicating annualised contributions on the parts per trillion scale, which we understand are actually too small to be detected by existing laboratory equipment. This is an encouraging start," said CSA 2020 Executive Committee Member Poul Woodall, Director, Environment & Sustainability, DFDS.

Launched last year, CSA 2020 have been pushing hard to counter recent criticism of scrubber's environmental credentials, and in particular address concern that wash water from open-loop scrubbers is harmful to the marine environment.

"While there is no debate surrounding the technology's air emissions-busting capability, we hope that the CE Delft study, along with other recently published scientific research, will help answer remaining questions surrounding the environmental impact of scrubber wash water," says Ian Adams, Executive Director, CSA 2020.

CE Delft says it expects to complete and publish the full study this summer.