Scrubber manufacturers are delighted about the 2020 global 0.50% sulphur cap for marine fuels, but there are still some issues to overcome before owners rush to install abatement technology. These include uncertainties caused by the regulatory framework and elements of perhaps unfairly rigid environmental performance demands, EGCSA workshop heard last month.
The Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems Association (EGCSA) held a meeting in London from 30 November to 1 December 2016 to discuss all related issues for the effective implementation of the 2020 0.5% global sulphur cap. IBIA participated in the workshop providing the following key highlights of the meeting:
Owners are facing financial, technical and political risks if they install a scrubber, Per A. Brinchmann, VP Technical, Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA (WWL) said. One problem is that there is no ‘grandfathering’ of environmental performance technology, which combined with uncertainty about future regulatory requirements – for example with regards to washwater standards or tightening emission parameters – means early owners may find their systems obsolete if technical performance falls short of requirements.
Brinchmann highlighted that continuous monitoring can even have some unfortunate side effects that actually discriminates against EGCS as well as technology used to control nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, because they record short term, but unavoidable emission standard failures caused by specific operational conditions that impact on the engine load.
One of the most vexed issues that keep coming up is the impact of scrubber washwater on the marine environment. Several European countries have banned vessels from using open loop systems within their coastal waters and on inland waterways, and some are discussing it. The EGCSA workshop heard two presentations on the subject.
The EGCSA workshop also heard from Eddy van Bouwel, IPIECA, about the impact on the refining industry from the IMO’s 2020 sulphur cap decision. He reminded everyone that there is no button to push for refineries to stop producing high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO), and that there is no global forum where refineries will come together and make a decision on how to respond. Competition laws would make this illegal. This means each refiner will make their own decisions based on their own analysis of the regulation’s impact on the markets they operate in, so it will be up to individual refiners – not the sector – whether they chose to make efforts to provide the marine fuels sector with suitable products.
IBIA’s presentation provided an overview of IBIA’s input to the debate on implementing the 0.50% sulphur cap at the IMO, stressing that going from the global 3.50% sulphur limit to a 0.50% sulphur limit is not as easy as flicking a switch, neither for global refining, the bunker supply industry, or even for ships – unless they have scrubbers installed ahead of time. However, assuming full compliance with the 0.50% sulphur limit in 2020, demand for HSFO would drop sharply and it would become a niche market, catering only to vessels with scrubbers. The question then becomes whether all suppliers would continue to market HSFO if most global demand is for low sulphur fuels. IBIA’s representative at the EGCSA workshop suggested that major bunker ports with plenty of storage/delivery options will continue to have HSFO, but ongoing supply may not be viable in smaller ports unless they have regular calls from vessels with scrubbers. Moreover, ports with low HSFO turnover will not be able to sustain a spot market for this type of fuel.
Find out more by reading IBIA’s coverage at http://ibia.net/ibia-participates-as-scrubber-association-examines-issues-ahead-of-2020/
