Image Source: sjofartstidningen
The CIMAC world congress at Helsinki, Finland (6th June 2016 to 10th June 2016) has been an eye opener and we have got all answers for every pondering question.
With more hybrid fuels being introduced in the market and upcoming stringent emission regulations, many have been wondering whether to switch to LNGs or use distillate fuels or continue with the new hybrid fuels.
Some ship owners have made a bold decision and have opted for exhaust gas scrubbers. While these scrubbers can mean that the ships can burn any high sulphur fuel and continue its voyage without fuel switching in the ECAs, they come with a huge investment and the retrofit effort.
Some environmentalists have been claiming that the scrubbed effluent discharged into the sea could harm the marine species, whereby the pollution from the air has been diverted into the sea. However, Mr. RC Bhavnani, Vice-President, Viswa Lab, told MFAME that the exhaust gas scrubbers are definitely an environmental friendly solution and such claims made against the scrubbers are absolutely baseless.
Now we have one more essential piece of information where Stena Teknik’s Technical Director, Harry Robertsson, said that Stena’s fleet are likely to be driven by HFO as fuel, where the exhaust gas would be cleaned by the scrubbers in 15 years’ time, while the maritime industry will continue to witness more fuels would emerge and would be in the evolution stage.
Harry Robertsson, in his keynote speech at the CIMAC world congress 2016, Helsinki, suggested that using HFO with sulphur scrubbers could be the most cost-efficient fuel option – even if a carbon tax or fee is introduced on top of the fuel price.
Mr. Robertsson further added that the company looks forward to install three more scrubbers in addition to the existing 4, which has been installed already on board Stena vessels.
Image Source: lighthouse.nu
From his keynote speech, MFAME captured some key figures which are summarized as below:
Installation cost of Scrubbers – US $5 to $10 million/unit. The Cost of converting a vessel to LNG fuelled ship – is US $30 million for a ro-pax vessel and this comes with a hidden surprise of up to 20% power loss – which would mean that the Stena vessels would not be on time as per the schedule.
“Our approach to fuels is driven by the 0.1% sulphur limit in the North European ECA, as our activities for Stena Line and Stena RoRo are very much in this area,” said Robertsson. “I agree that we will have a fuel ‘mosaic’ in the future: different ships on different routes in different parts of the world will be running on different fuels.”
In addition to the company’s consideration of LNG, Stena Group says it is also considering methanol for use as marine fuel, highlighting the company’s current methanol conversion work on Stena Germanica.
MFAME earlier reported that Stena inks deal for the world’s most fuel efficient ferries with Methanol as fuel and the engines being made ‘Gas ready’.
Carl-Johan Hagman, Managing Director of Stena Line earlier said,“These ships will be the most fuel efficient ferries in the world and will set a new industry standard when it comes to operational performance, emissions and cost competitiveness, positioning Stena Line to support its customers in the next decades.”
MFAME was at Booth #0-17 at the CIMAC Congress and for more technical updates, do keep following us.
Coming up: MAN B&W has moved to Common rail fuel injection!
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