China’s maritime authority has issued a draft plan extending a ban on wash water discharge from open-loop scrubbers to more coastal regions from 2020. The ban follows an earlier restriction imposed in January 2019 on discharges from open-loop scrubbers in key emission control regions.
Following a months-long debate, China eventually implemented the ban within key emission control areas (ECAs), including the main channel of the Yangtze River, the Xijiang River, the Bohai sea region and ports along the coastline.
Effective from 1st January 2019, the regulation bans vessels from discharging wastewater and burning residue from open-loop scrubbers.
Extending this ban on 22 July 2019, China’s Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) said in the draft that it plans to include all coastal regions within 12 nautical miles (22.22 km) from the baseline of China’s territorial sea and regions near the southern island province of Hainan, Reuters reported.
The new regulation is coming into effect from 1st January 2020, together with the IMO’s 2020 sulphur cap.
The restriction is in line with China’s war against pollution and is part of obligations of the international convention China concluded,
…the MSA explains.
Banning open-loop scrubbers means shippers will have to switch to a closed-loop scrubbers system or opt for alternative low sulphur fuels.
The MSA also plans to ban ships using marine fuels with a sulphur content of more than 0.5% from entering Chinese jurisdiction of sea regions from 2020, and ships using fuel with a sulphur content of more than 0.1% will be banned from entering the Yangtze and Xijiang river regions from 2022.
It will also ban vessels carrying fuel oil with a sulphur content of more than 0.5% from entering Chinese water from 1 March 2020.
The draft will be open for public feedback until August 22.
An open-loop scrubber is a device that removes sulphur from the exhaust that comes through a ship’s smokestack but the water used in the removal process, known as wash water, is then discharged from the vessel. Closed-loop systems keep most of the wash water onboard the ship.
Amid a great debate on which is the most appropriate method of compliance with the 2020 sulphur cap, part of the industry seems to disapprove a recent tendency by ports to ban open loop scrubbers, noting that this may impede the adoption of scrubbers as one of the alternative options.
