The first day of The Motorship Propulsion & Emissions Conference on 4 March was characterised by a ‘business as usual’ attitude from shipowners in the face of recently introduced sulphur fuel limits.
In the first session of the conference, taking place at the Hotel Atlantic Kempinski in Hamburg, four leading operators – Brise Bereederung, Solvang ASA, United Arab Shipping Co and MSC – reported a problem-free two months since the introduction of the new 0.10% limit on sulphur in Emission Control Areas.
Fears over fuel-switching complications and off-spec fuel supply appeared to have been generally unfounded. “We were very well pre-warned before the requirements came in,” said Stefan Lindberg, Technical Director of Brise Bereederung.
Tor Øyvind Ask, Fleet Director for Solvang ASA also reported no early difficulties. But the potential problems must be kept in mind, he said: The main engine of a ship can suffer more internal leaks as a result of the lower viscosity of low-sulphur fuel, meaning that companies need to monitor fuel consumption carefully.
Only the area of port state control inspection – and in particular the consistency of enforcement – was an area for concern, with ship owners reporting little standardisation across different ports. A keynote presentation from Hendrik Hollstein, Manager Air Pollution, Hamburg Ministry of Urban Development & Environment highlighted the city’s approach to air pollution and the cooperation it was seeking from the shipping industry.
Enforcement consistency
Ulf Petereit, Inspector, Hamburg Waterways Police revealed one such authority’s experiences so far in enforcing sulphur compliance. He noted that the authority detected 600 ships in January, of which more than 95% were in compliance with the new sulphur limit.
Consistency of enforcement was addressed by two other keynote presentations, by Arsenio Dominguez, Chairman, MEPC, IMO and Tor Øyvind Ask in his capacity as a member of Trident Alliance.
Two months of problem-free compliance was welcome news to delegates, although some questioned by The Motorship remained cautious about the prospect of challenges and disputes emerging at a later date. Nevertheless, said conference chairman Lars Robert Pedersen, Deputy Secretary General, BIMCO, after years of fretting about the challenges ahead the good start was encouraging.
Fuel switching, compatibility testing and the challenges of assessing and selecting from a range of recently introduced ‘hybrid’ fuels – with properties of both residual and distillate fuels – were discussed in the late afternoon session.
Armelle Breneol, EAME Marine Logistics Advisor, ExxonMobil summed up the approach to the challenges: “New formulations introduced as a result of new legislation mean more potential compatability issues. But the issue of compatability is not new and with care it is easy to address.”
Ship efficiency
In the afternoon sessions the discussion turned towards ship efficiency. Johanna Wreime, Area Sales Manager, Rolls-Royce Marine discussed the ‘service friendly’ approach characterised by the new B33:45 engine; Sokrates Tolgos, Head of Sales Cruise & Ferry, MAN Diesel & Turbo discussed how software driving a fully-electronic fuel injection system could lead to major engine efficiencies; and Toni Stojcevski, Project Manager, Methanol Adaptation, Wärtsilä Sweden discussed the company’s adaptation of its engines to take methanol fuel on the Stena Germanica.
John Willsher, Global Account Manager, International Paint told delegates about how the company was striving to monetise efficiency savings made by its hull coatings. A pending carbon credit scheme – with independent fuel efficiency audits by class societies and carbon efficiency expert Gold Standard – would offer ship owners a financial benefit for reducing emissions and consumption.
In the final session, Lars-Erik Hellring, Project Manager, Energy Savings Program, Stena Line discussed the company’s extensive energy saving plan. Comprised of 200 separate projects, the initiative aims to generate annual efficiencies of €17 million – from a total project cost of just €20 million.
The day concluded with a relaxed dinner at the famous Fischerhaus Hafenblick restaurant, near Hamburg’s busy dock district.
More information about the event via http://www.propulsionconference.com
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