Ship Owner Highlights Bunker Cost Savings Gleaned Through Scrubber Use for ECA Compliance

Reederei H.-P. WEGENER installed Alfa Laval PureSOx systems on two of its 1000 TEU container ships.

Alfa Laval Tuesday announced that German ship owner Reederei H.-P. WEGENER has highlighted bunker cost savings gleaned through the use of Alfa Laval PureSOx scrubbers installed on two of the company's container feeder vessels, the 1000 TEU Containerships VI and Containerships VIII, for emission control area (ECA) compliance.

The vessels, which are on charter to Containerships Ltd. Oy. (Containerships), were retrofitted at the start of 2015 with open-loop PureSOx systems, said to have been specifically designed for use in the low-alkalinity Baltic waters in which the vessels operate.

Reederei H.-P. WEGENER says benefits from the investment in scrubbers is apparent after just one-and-a-half years of operation, noting that switching to MGO or other low sulfur fuel for ECA compliance would have increased Containerships' fuel costs by as much as 100 percent, or an estimated additional expenditure of €1.5 million ($1.11 million).

"PureSOx lets Containerships VI and VIII continue using HFO, instead of more expensive, low-sulfur alternatives," said Dr. Jörn Mecklenburg, Managing Director at Reederei H.-P. WEGENER, adding the investment has paid for itself as a result.

"A scrubber starts to pay off when 40 percent of a vessel's time is spent in ECAs, so the business case for these vessels was very clear. Even with the lower fuel delta in the past year, it turned out to be a good investment."

Reederei H.-P. WEGENER is said to have ensured the scrubber installations were prepared for hybrid conversion, giving the company the ability to adapt to changing regulations in the future and implement a closed-loop arrangement at a later date.

"We are prepared if new rules take effect where the vessels operate, so there's no worry about needing a new system later on," said Mecklenburg.

Last week, Ship & Bunker reported that Finnlines Plc (Finnlines) says its 1H 2016 bottom line was boosted by its use of "less expensive" HFO in conjunction with scrubbers for ECA compliance, rather than simply burning more expensive ECA compliant 0.10 percent sulfur fuels.