Scrubber Technology - GL Exchange Forum

Posted - 2. Dec. 2011 - GL Exchange Forum
Pressure on the shipping industry to reduce the air emissions from vessels grows day by day. Regulations to more strictly limit the sulphur content in marine fuel are in place and set to tighten over the coming year. Exhaust gas scrubbers are one solution for vessels to meet such limits over the coming years and to discuss the use of this technology Germanischer Lloyd (GL) recently held an exchange forum at their Head Office in Hamburg
More than 50 representatives from the maritime industry, shipping companies, ship management agencies, shipyards, maritime journalists and stakeholders met to consider the emissions limits, hear presentations from GL and industry experts, and discuss the drivers, implementation and commercial implications of scrubber technology for the industry.
Mr Ralf Plump, Head of GL’s Department Environmental Research, set the background for the presentations at the forum, providing attendees with an examination of the international regulations in place and upcoming, the drivers pushing their introduction, and the advantages provided by scrubber technology. Mr Plump also looked at the estimated costs for retrofitting scrubber to existing vessels, in comparison with the installation of LNG (liquefied natural gas) fuel systems. Not only scrubber technology, but overall fuel efficiency in the maritime logistic chain was the key to lowering emissions, he noted, but shipping should also have its eye on the development of “zero emissions” solutions.
The class and regulatory requirements for the conversion of vessels to utilize scrubber technology were the focus of the Georg Martin, Head of GL’s System Technology Department, in his presentation. The safety considerations, class rules and monitoring requirements were laid out by Mr Martin, who noted that for the Class rules did not require Wet Scrubber Systems to have a scrubber bypass system, as long as the complete system is made of non-combustible material.
In his presentation “Special Features of the application of Wet Scrubber Technology”, Mr Torbjorn Henriksson, from Wärtsilä Industrial Operations, looked at the scrubbing process and Wärtsilla’s solutions both for scrubbers and for wash water processing. Mr Henriksson went on to examine Wärtislla’s first full-scale SOx (sulphur oxide) scrubber installation on the GL classed “Containerships VII”, which was completed in August 2011.
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