How to burn the most affordable fuel

Marco Dierico, Marine Business Development EMEA, DuPont, discussed how to “Burn the most affordable fuel” at the 2017 GREEN4SEA Conference. Considering the forthcoming regulations and the real short pay-back time for newbuilds applications, Mr. Dierico said that the marine scrubbers can provide the industry with a mature technology limiting the constraints and the availability uncertainties of sourcing the 0,5% sulphur fuel. Scrubbers will be the bridge to an LNG future fleet in 2030, he stated. Also, yards are providing scrubber ready designed ships incorporating our scrubber system to limit the associated installation and re-design costs.

Marine scrubbers are the most popular measure for the tanker segment to tackle emissions compared to retrofit where the involvement of the ship-owners and the technical apartment is much more in dept.

Some relevant DuPont customers such as Valero, Tamoil, Total, Shell, Lukoil, Saudi Aramco will be predominant to push ship-owners to install scrubbers as they will be more competitive in this ten year time frame. It is expected a stable pricing differential between HFO and MGO until 2020. The HFO will continue to serve the industry; at least the oil majors will accommodate users’ needs. Clearly the MGO production will increase (from 64 up to 230 Mton/year). MGO production requires refineries upgrades and additional processes; adding costs even if you use blending technology. Ship operators that planned an early scrubber installation will have a great competitive advantage in general. Most of the ship designs already have provision to include allowances for space and also for power demand. Thus, the impact of the cost to install a scrubber system on a newbuild is very limited. In 2019 and 2020 a sudden demand increase for MGO and scrubbers will negatively impact equipment costs and on-time deliveries. MEPC71 will set the path forward to regulations already confirmed for 2020 during MEPC 70.

Why to Plan to get a marine scrubber now?

Marine scrubbers provide a very flexible fuel sourcing; they can process any fuel down to 0,1%S equivalent. Not only they do provide a ROI below 2-years, but also a permanent fuel saving to the operators.  Planning now will shorten the ROI, an addressable market of 15,000 ships will lead to a pricing increase as everybody in this industry (makers, third parties, yards, installators) tries to source equipment from third parties. Thus, if the time schedule is reduced, the prize will increase subsequently. Having a scrubber operating in 2018, installed during a scheduled dry dock gives the crew and the owners experience for 2020 future installation. Installation costs on Newbuilds have very limited impact, making all-stream applications very competitive while further more yards take responsibility throughout the project.

The R.O.I is being influenced by several factors, for instance, a retrofitting installation costs as much more compared to a newbuilding. If you schedule a retrofit of a scrubber during a scheduled dry dock you can save money, however, if you do on purpose dry docking because we are approaching the 2020 deadline, then the cost will go up.  From the installation point of view, the different type of scrubbers has different impact.  For a retrofit, going for an In-Line design is warmly suggested, in order to limit the impact of the installation costs. On the other hand, regarding the Newbuilds, connecting all the exhaust gas sources into one scrubbing tower can be a valid alternative.

A scrubbing system has five essential components as described below:

Furthermore, DuPont marine scrubbers have different inlet design configuration; the SINGLE-STREAM and the MULTI-STREAM. The first of them is popular for cruise ships, ferries and retrofit of cargo as well. An optional By-Pass Line can be also included. At the other end of the spectrum, the MULTI-STREAM is popular for the Newbuilds where you can accommodate several sources into one single tower with an optional By-Pass Line. This also reduces the equipment to be installed as you just need a single tower and the relevant equipment. A MIXING BOX^TM unit is further required to connect several sources in order to balance the pressure across the tower.  The boiler can also be included with a dedicate fan

DuPont further implements some customization, called FIT LINE^TM, a slim and tall tower typical application for containerships, bulk carriers and ferries. Moreover in alternative the company does a larger but shorted kind of customization, the VERSA LINE^TM, which is a typical application for tankers or short funnels.

Currently Greek shipowners prefer the open loop configuration because it can capture up to 80% of fuel savings during sailing. There are some limitations in EU ports such as no water discharge which meant that MDO/MGO circuit should be maintained onboard. Also the all stream configuration for Newbuilds is very popular as it has a limited impact on installation costs. In terms of retrofit, the single stream configuration is reccommeded as it also has limited installation costs impact and the ROI is maintained below the 2 years. For engine above 20 MW, no funnel modifications needed. The closed loop configuration can be downsized for port operations only.

A case study regarding a Suezmax Tanker 160K which preferred In-line configuration with no-bypass for the ME is presented in the picture herebelow.

DuPont has recently signed L.o.i with NAVIOS Ship Management Inc. according to which NAVIOS endorsed BELCO as the preferred supplier of exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) due to their slim design and reliability. NAVIOS is closely working with BELCO on a feasibility study/economic analysis for both retrofit and newbuilding installations of scrubber units. The company further enlarged its partnership with Goltens Green Tech in order to serve EU, UEA and USA customers. Goltens is providing sales representation, commissioning, after sales services. Among other installations, DuPont recently successfully installed two multistream Hybrid scrubbers for 2 Selfunloading Bulk Carrier Newbuildings in China, designed by DELTAMARIN as well as retrofitted H.A Sklenar which is for delivery in fall 2017. There are a few other “scrubber ready” notation projects where a full engineering package will be ready for near future installation on Suezmax and VLCC Tankers for the Greek clientele.

Above text is an edited article of Marco Dierico’s presentation during 2017 GREEN4SEA Conference & Awards

You may view his presentation video by clicking here

The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and not necessarily those of  GREEN4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion  purposes only.

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Marco Dierico, Marine Business Development EMEA, DuPont

Marco is the business development manager Europe for DuPont Marine business, mainly involved in promoting the exhaust gas cleaning systems business. He joined DuPont in 2014 after a seven year experience in the most relevant Italian shipbuilding group: Fincantieri S.p.a. He spent 6 years in the basic design department for cruise and ferries taking care of several aspects of a ship design, from stability calculation, weight evaluation to the technical specifications. Most recently he spent a year in the engineering department for the machinery systems and he was in charge of a project for the integration of the B.A.T for DeSox and DeNox on board of cruise ships. He serves customers around Europe (with a special focus on Greek and Italian territory) and offers his experience to prepare tailored technical proposals for the passengers and cargo market (dry & wet), newbuildings and retrofits applications. He holds a marine engineering degree from the University of Trieste and a maritime science diploma. Passionate about new technologies applied to the marine industry.