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Singapore, 3 March - I HAVE been a shipping journalist for over 20 years now but I am sure I have never come across a story like the one about Singapore-based Ecospec Global Technology’s CSNOx gas abatement system.
Now it is not that the story is about a hugely significant technological breakthrough, although it is. No, the really remarkable thing is the muted response that is so far elicited from the global shipping industry.
For those who have not been following this story over the past year or so, Ecospec claims that its system can massively reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, as well as reduce those of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) to below IMO limits.
At present there are International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations restricting SO2 and NOx emissions. One way of complying is to use abatement systems, colloquially known as ‘scrubbers’, and some have been developed and are in the early stages of commercial use.
There is currently no requirement for reducing or eliminating CO emissions from ships. It had been expected that the United Nations’ Copenhagen Conference last December would have provided IMO with the authority to develop international regulations to achieve this in the marine sector.
Of course Copenhagen was a failure and nothing will now proceed at the UN level until this December’s Mexico Conference. Nevertheless, unless the review of the basic science behind the case that greenhouse gases (GHG) are leading to dangerous global warming comes up with a surprise, the political pressure is such that shipping will have to act to cut its CO2 production. In the absence of a global GHG regime, the EU is certain to act unilaterally.
Until Ecospec came up with its system, it had been assumed that the technology simply wasn’t available to scrub CO2 from emissions.....
http://www.eco-business.com/news/2010/mar/03/spore-firm-emissions-breakthrough-seen-too-good-be/
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