The Danish government, in collaboration with several political parties has reached a new agreement to prohibit the discharge of scrubber water from ships within 22 km of the Danish coasts starting from 1 July 2025.
Currently, ships use open scrubbers to clean the heavy bunker oil, releasing the scrubber water directly into the sea. However, this practice has led to excessive levels of heavy metals and tar substances such as lead, cadmium, anthracene, and benz(a)pyrene in the marine environment, the Ministry notes.
Under the new agreement, ships will be required to either use low-sulfur fuel or closed scrubbers with zero emissions. This means that the residual product from the closed scrubber must be delivered to port reception facilities.
The sea area extending up to 22 kilometers (12 nautical miles) from the coast falls under national regulation as per the Convention on the Law of the Sea. The areas beyond 22 kilometers are governed by international rules.
The ban on the discharge of scrubber water will be enforced through an amendment to the law, which will be introduced in the upcoming parliamentary year. The ban will be effective from 1 July 2025 for ships equipped with open scrubbers, while ships with closed scrubbers will be required to comply from 1 July 2029 onwards.
I am pleased that the politicians have chosen to listen to our request to introduce a sensible phase-in period, so that the shipping companies that have invested a lot of money in complying with the rules and reducing their sulfur emissions with a scrubber, have time to adapt to a new reality
… said Nina Porst, Director of Climate, Environment, and Safety at Danish Shipping.
