At the risk of stating the obvious, shipowners are in a tight spot.
The International Maritime Organization has left them with just over three years to choose between a sharp rise in fuel bills with no guarantee of consistent quality, a huge up-front capital cost for a scrubber or a new ship, or the legal risk of ignoring the sulfur cap and hoping the law doesn’t catch up with them.
And hanging over everyone is the possibility of the status quo being upended again in a few years as regulators turn to addressing other types of emissions.
Shipowners will first need to have a clear view of their finances, to see if they can access the credit for a scrubber, or whether they’ll be an a position to take a cut in profits from higher fuel bills in 2020 – or pass the cost on to their customers.
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Tackling 2020 — the impact of the IMO and how shipowners can deal with tighter sulfur limits
They’ll then need to assess the routes their vessels travel on, and talk to suppliers at their regular bunkering ports about the likely availability and price of their preferred fuel.
They’ll need to take a view on whether non-compliance will be an option for them under certain circumstances, and think about the potential reaction from their investors, clients, regulators in their home country and the general public if they get caught.
And they’ll need to look at what their competitors are doing – those who find the least painful method of coping with the sulfur cap will be able to offer the lowest freight rates, and take market share from rivals.
Related video: The bunker market beyond 2020
For many shipowners the process of making this choice will be a miserable experience, coming as it does at a time of prolonged stress on the finances of much of the industry.
But the upside that rarely gets discussed in shipping circles is the improvements we’re likely to see in the environment in the coming years as a result – pollution campaigners estimate as many as 200,000 premature deaths may have been avoided by pushing
on with the change in 2020.
The process of weaning the shipping industry off a cheap fuel 3,500 times more sulfurous than road diesel was always going to be
problematic, but it was an inevitable change that will be welcomed by many.
—Jack Jordan, Editorial Lead, Bunker News
—Paul Hickin, Associate Director, Oil News & Analysis
Related podcast: Shipping industry faces seismic shift in 2020 as sulfur cap looms
What is the exhaust gas component causing death? Everybody knows but only few are commenting. Particulate Matter ! In particular the one bellow 10 microns, that can be easily passed into the blood stream, generating cancer anywhere in the body. Why EU is not tackling this problem at once? But is tackling the NOx and SO2? Sooner rather than later, this problem must be solved. This is the only great advantage of LNG, that despite of emmiting a lot less PM, is emmiting a lot more of Volatile Organic Compounds, equaly Cancer promoters. Again somebody decided to separate Methanic from non methanic VOC’s as this some are not harmful. Perhaps engine manufacturers, and the society in general need to re-think better the future of the humanity. The funny thing is to remember that about 100 yeras ago Shipping was then a green way of transporting goods through long distance.
A new disruptive technology is now available!
Hanging over shipping industry is the possibility of the status quo being upended again in a few years as regulators turn to addressing other types of emissions, like particulate matter in all its forms (PM10, Black Carbon). Fortunately, a new technology may solve shipowners emissions problems on time, by tackling the emissions of the different exhaust pollutants at once, while making possible to improve engines fuel consumption.
The Innovation Marine Technology Company, TecnoVeritas Ltd, pursued a research since 2009 to improve the heavy fuel oil quality in what concerns the emissions and the engines efficiencies, following a line of research related with the use of high intensity ultra-sonic fuel processing. Using that technology since 2010 at industrial scale, the thermionic water molecule decomposition into hydrogen, oxygen and its peroxides is promoted. Tests carried out in to real scale plants, have confirmed what the laboratory tests have pointed out, evidencing a drastic reduction on SOx, NOx, CO, PM and a Specific fuel consumption. The Enermulsion Desulphurizing system, has been tested with most of the main engine manufacturers like Wartsila, MaK, and MAN, therefore giving confidence and field validated results, which turns ENERMULSION a valid solution for the ship owners and power plant operators, as it tackles emissions and reduces specific fuel oil consumptions and therefore tonnes of CO2. Remember, for each ton of heavy fuel oil, about 3.16 tons of CO2 are emitted, and a forecast of 80€/ton of CO2 is foreseeable in a very near future. (Presently a ton of CO2 costs about 6€).