Tag: reducing shipping emissions

Ocean Yield ASA, the Oslo-based shipowner, has placed orders for three LEGCs (Liquefied Ethylene Gas Carriers) of 36,000 cbm capacity, to be built at Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering, China. Each will be powered by a single MAN B&W ME-GI low-speed, dual-fuel engine. The engines will run on ethane, which ethylene carriers are also equipped to transport, and represents the first time ethane has been used as fuel to propel an oceangoing vessel. Hartmann Schiffahrt, part of Hartmann AG, the German ship-owning and management group, has acted as technical leader on the LEGC project, while Gaschem Service, another Hartmann division, is commercially responsible for the employment of the vessel. The vessels are scheduled for delivery in August, October and December 2016 respectively. MAN Diesel & Turbo reports that ethane was chosen as fuel, in preference to HFO, due to its more competitive pricing as well as the significantly shorter bunkering time it entails. As a fuel, its emissions profile is also superior to HFO - in which respect it is similar to methane - and compared to HFO contains negligible sulphur, 15-20% lower CO2and emits significantly fewer particles under combustion. MAN Diesel & Turbo also states that the ME-GI engines will ...

According to China Daily, experts have suggested China to establish emissions inventories to details pollutants which account for as much as 20% of the cities airbone pollutants and they have also called for the diesel fuel standard for ships to be strengthened to reduce pollution. Pollutants generated by ships and the port in Hong Kong contributed to more than 50 percent of the region's airborne pollution, according to Ding Yan, deputy head of the Environmental Protection Ministry's vehicle emissions control center. "The proportion for some major port cities on the mainland, as some research has shown, can reach as high as 20 to 30 percent," Ding stated while speaking at a seminar last week held by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an international nonprofit environmental organization. A white paper from the National Resources Defence Council (NRDC) on the prevention and control of shipping and port air emissions said pollutants generated by ships and ports include PM2.5 - particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that can enter the lungs - PM10, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds. The white paper said the amount of PM2.5 emitted by a medium-sized container ship in one day is equivalent to that emitted by ...

Finding a place to berth in the port of Rotterdam, will be an easy task for inland shippers with the soon-to-be-launched ‘Berth Available' app. With this new app shippers will be able to see at a glance which berths are available and which ones are taken. Entrepreneur Léon Gommans came up with the application that combines real-live data on the location of ships from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) with the coordinates of berths in the port of Rotterdam. Gommans recently won the National App Prize with his idea. It is expected that the app will be available in the App Store by October. The app will be based on data from the project ‘Blauwe golf, Verbindend', an initiative of the provinces Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland, Rijkswaterstaat (the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management), the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and the Port of Rotterdam Authority, which facilitates information exchange between shippers and waterway managers. As of 1 December 2014 an AIS device is mandatory for all vessels on the Rhine. The data from AIS is available as long as shippers and vessels stay anonymous and can be used for maritime purposes only. Source: Port of Rotterdam  In the ...

MAN Diesel & Turbo has supplied a complete propulsion system comprising a 7L32/44CR engine, Renk gears and an Alpha adjustable CP propeller for a new chemicals tanker operated by GEFO Gesellschaft für Öltransporte mbH. The tanker, christened "Fidelio", has a DWT of 6366 and can transport 260 types of (petro-) chemical materials - from vegetable oil to sulfuric acid. The Fidelio's main routes will be in northern Europe, however the tanker is also equipped for worldwide operation and therefore complies with the strict emissions regulations enforced in US coastal waters. The chemicals tanker was built at the Tersan shipyard in Yalova (Turkey) and is currently on its maiden voyage from Israel via France to the Netherlands. The 7L32/44CR engine, built at MAN Diesel & Turbo's plant in Augsburg, has an output of 3,920 kW and drives a MAN Alpha Mark 5 adjustable propeller via a reduction gear unit from Renk. This combination boosts the drive system's efficiency by up to nine percent, helping to save both fuel and costs as well as reduce emissions. The gears also have a pinion shaft which operates a Cummins generator to supply the ship's power (PTO mode). The generator can also serve as an ...

According to a new report ‘High Seas: High Stakes' released by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at The University of Manchester, avoiding dangerous levels of climate change requires a radical rethink of the shipping system. If global shipping is to make its fair contribution to avoiding the 2°C of warming associated with dangerous climate change, CO2 emissions need to be cut within the next decade and fall by at least 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels, say the authors. The report's findings highlight that much more needs to be done even to just curb the rate of growth in emissions, with slow-steaming - where ships run at lower speeds during their voyages in order to reduce fuel burn - an essential part of the push towards cutting CO2. It also highlights the importance of looking at the bigger picture: one high profile policy area currently in the minds of the shipping industry is how to cut the sulphur content of fuels. New regulations that encourage the uptake of fuels that are lower in sulphur, such as low sulphur diesel, may ultimately release higher levels of CO2. Wind-assisted propulsion, in conjunction with other technologies, is one option that ...

Today is the deadline by which EU Member States have to transpose the European Sulphur Directive into national legislation. With the entry into force of the new European sulphur rules for ships in less than six months, on 1st of January 2015, European shipowners issue an open letter calling for fair, realistic and harmonised implementation of the Directive. The new sulphur requirements impose that ships sailing in the SECAs (Sulphur Emission Control Areas-the Channel, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea) use bunker fuels with a sulphur content of maximum 0.1% or that the same level of emissions is reached by the use of alternative fuels or compliant abatement technologies. However, the shipping industry is faced with a number of legal and technical uncertainties, which the Commission and Member States urgently need to address if they hope to lend shipowners a helping hand in preparing for the 1st of January 2015 deadline. In general, shipowners that have made irrevocable investments in good faith to be compliant in time, but are facing some of the uncertainties and problems, should be able to rely on well-defined and strictly limited transitory exemptions, such as extended compliance paths. "Member States and the Commission need ...

The UK P&I Club has issued a bulletin on technical problems and solutions of low-sulphur fuels. Typical technical problems experienced by shipowners when they are required to use low-sulphur fuels include issues with the supply and storage of low sulphur fuel, problems with machinery operation when using low-sulphur fuel, incompatibility between fuel types, and difficulties and delays when changing over from one fuel type to another. To avoid such problems, shipowners should consult their engine and boiler manufacturers for advice on operating with low-sulphur fuel and the need for any equipment and system modifications. Shipowners should also ensure that: all equipment including engines, purifiers, filters, fuel systems and sealing arrangements are correctly maintained fuel oil viscosity and temperature control equipment is accurate and fully operational system temperature and pressure alarms, fuel filter differential pressure transmitters and so on are accurate and operational. On each ship the fuel change-over procedure should be clearly defined and understood. Engineers need to be fully familiar with fuel systems and main engine starting systems and establish ‘failure to start' procedures. Starting air pressure should be monitored during manoeuvring operations and the deck department needs to appreciate the limitations of starting air availability. During standby, two ...

SKF Blohm and Voss Industries presents an environmental monitoring system that links a ship's emission values to GPS position data, thereby aiding compliance with the applicable MARPOL regulations. SKF Blohm + Voss Industries launches the Turbulo BlueMon emission monitoring system, that can record all relevant emissions on board ships in only one system. Additionally, Turbulo BlueMon couple these values with the vessel's position data, based on GPS signals. This link - a new development on the market - facilitates compliance with existing regulations and makes possible seamless auditing and verification of emissions from ships. The environmental protection in the maritime shipping sector is defined in six annexes in the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78). Turbulo BlueMon can record all ship emissions that are listed with limit values in the respective Annexes. Sea areas that are subject to other regulations, such as the Vessel General Permit 2013, applicable to US coastal waters, are also stored in the system. Thanks to GPS link, it is clear where and when which emissions are emitted. The data remains available for at least 24 months, thereby allowing retrospective verification that all emission limits were complied with. The GPS link ...

Neste Oil will launch a low-sulfur marine bunker fuel compliant with the requirements of the EU's Sulphur Directive. The new fuel reduces sulfur, nitrogen and particle emissions in the marine transport significantly. EU's Sulphur Directive is due to come into force in 2015 and will require the sulfur content of bunker fuel to be reduced from 1% to 0.1% in the Baltic, the North Sea, and the English Channel. In practice, this means that ships will have to install an on-board scrubber system or switch to low-sulfur bunker fuel. "Our aim, as part of our strategy, is to continually offer customers cleaner fuel solutions, and our new low-sulfur bunker fuel is an excellent example of our capability to meet the tightening environmental requirements," says Olli Vesamo, Neste Oil's Director, Direct Sales. "The new fuel is a much more highly refined product that conventional bunker fuel. As we remove virtually all the sulfur during the refining process, using it will enable ships to comply with the strict new sulfur limit due to come into force at the beginning of next year. It will also eliminate the need for owners to make major modifications to their vessels, such as installing scrubbing equipment." ...

The eighth DFDS ship is in dock in order to be fitted with a scrubber system: one that can clean a ship's exhaust gases of sulphur. This investment is really needed in order to prepare ourselves for the new and stricter EU sulphur rules that take effect from January 2015. Ship no. 8 is BRITANNIA SEAWAYS, one of DFDS Ro-Ro freight ships that serves routes on the North Sea. BRITANNIA SEAWAYS is currently at the Remontowa shipyard in Poland where the scrubber is being installed.   Fitting a scrubber is spectacularly simple The large casing with built-in scrubber is being prepared on the quay. Afterwards it is lifted intact onto the ship and placed between the ship's two funnels. The two funnels are then connected to the scrubber. This is followed, by the difficult and lengthy task of connecting and completing the scrubber installation. The large casing with in-built scrubber is prepared on the quay (Image Credit: DFDS) Afterwards it is transported to the ship (Image Credit: DFDS) The scrubber system is definitely not a one-size-fits-all solution and the kind of scrubber that is to be installed really depends on the type of ship. Kasper Moos, DFDS Head of Technical Organisation, explains: "The method ...