The industrial service provider Bilfinger is planning to conquer new markets due to its scrubber technology.
Secured several contacts
The service provider group has secured several contracts from various Greek maritime companies. The company has identified 42 vessel that are to be fitted with scrubbers.
Special absorption process
The retrofits are flue-gas-desulphurisation systems that filter out sulphurous exhaust gases by means of a special absorption process. The total contract value amounts to more than 40 million euros. The maritime shipping companies commissioning the work were Maran Tankers, Anangel Maritime, Delta Tankers, and Marmaras Navigation. The Engineering & Technologies is the division looking after these contracts.
Queries pour in from various companies
Tom Blades, CEO of Bilfinger, explained: “More and more enterprises are becoming interested in environmental technologies now on the water as well. We have decades of experience with flue-gas desulphurisation, and we are now carrying our know-how over to the high-seas shipping industry. Deploying our ‘Made in Germany’ technologies will allow us do our part to help ensure that ships comply with the new thresholds and that the sea air remains clean.”
Compliance with strict regulations
The international maritime shipping industry must comply with significantly stricter environmental requirements. Most vessels currently are fuelled by heavy oil, which comprises a share of more than three percent of sulphur.
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has moved to address the problem: Starting in 2020, the sulphur content of fuel is to be officially limited to 0.5 percent all over the world. As an alternative, IMO and the European Union are permitting exhaust gases to be desulphurised using flue-gas cleaning systems, so-called scrubbers. This reduces the sulphur dioxide concentrations in the exhaust gas emitted by heavy oil to the same significant degree achieved by the use of low-sulphur fuels (marine diesel and LNG), which are very expensive by comparison.
Excellent market potential
Michael Löffelmann, Executive President of the Engineering & Technologies division: “These contracts serve as excellent references and will open doors to additional projects in the maritime sector. Given that scrubbers are a practically competition-free product whose cost can be depreciated over one to two and a half years, we expect to see vigorous demand for our solutions. The many new orders in our book also validate the approach we have taken to transpose our unique expertise in the field of industrial plant and equipment to other growth sectors.”
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Source: Bilfinger
