The latest scrubber market trends and innovations for the box ship sector
The scrubber market has picked up after a difficult two years.
Commenting on the uptick in the market, CR Ocean Engineering (CROE) senior adviser Nicholas Confuorto tells Container Shipping & Trade, “The market seems to have improved in the past five to six months. It is not to the level of 2018 as that was incredible, but at least the market seems alive again compared with the past two years.”
Key to the scrubber market improvement, he says, is the increased differential in fuel pricing. “What is building up again is the differential between very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) and heavy fuel oil (HFO) has been increasing steadily and the differential is much higher between MGO and high sulphur,” Mr Confuorto notes.
“This price differential can justify a scrubber project for a shipowner as if they install one, they can make money.”
But there are challenges, such as scrubbers being more expensive to buy and install now. Mr Confuorto explains, “Everything has become more expensive, if owners had done it two years ago it would have been much cheaper and they could have saved money. Materials have become very expensive over the past six months.”
But the positive news is scrubber vendors are working on reducing costs by finding different material vendors and exploring options. Mr Confuorto comments, “We all realise the economy is what will make a project go and if it is too expensive, it won’t happen.”
The other challenge is when container ship operators are making money on their vessels, they are reluctant to take them out of service for a scrubber retrofit.
Nevertheless, scrubber projects are increasing, as even if owners take their vessels out of service, they will save money on fuel and make money by installing a scrubber.
Mr Confuorto says, “I think the differential will stay at this level for a while. In the next few months, we will see more contracts and we are looking forward to the market resurfacing and staying strong for quite a few years.”
While scrubbers are being incorporated into both newbuild and retrofit container ships, Mr Confuorto comments, “Going forward, while we will see both newbuild and retrofits, the retrofit is what provides the momentum to the market as there are so many vessels out there.”
CROE is also moving forward with different solutions that will help owners’ future-proof their vessels. CROE is promoting a highly efficient water treatment system and developing technologies for fine particulate control and CO2 reduction.
It will be a completely new combined system for newbuilds, or it can be added to scrubbers already installed. A trial of the solution is slated to begin in June on a European ferry and will run for six months.
Mr Confuorto says, “We are seeing a market not only for particulate matter but also for CO2 precleaning. The process of CO2 reduction requires a cleaner gas. We are looking at utilising scrubbers with the improvement for particulate matter as a precleaner to CO2 reduction. We can work with HFO if necessary and still apply CO2 reduction because the gas is cleaned of all the sulphur and all the particulate matter, creating a very clean gas. This will be the market that makes scrubbers viable because you still need scrubbers for CO2 reduction and the process can apply to MGO too, as fine particles still need to be removed.”
Yara Marine Technologies chief sales officer Aleksander Askeland says, “The decarbonisation of the maritime industry will be a long journey requiring buy-in from all stakeholders. Given that there is no silver bullet to achieving net zero, what is urgently needed is braver – and immediate – action from shipowners and operators. There can be no doubt emissions reduction is the only path forward and there are multiple clean technologies available today to help make vessel operations greener. Scrubbers are a tried and tested solution that have been proven in the field.”
He says Yara believes in a holistic approach to decarbonisation, encompassing the entire global fleet. “It is vital existing vessels have access to solutions that allow them to comply with emissions regulations and reduce their impact on the environment. After all, it is not truly sustainable to scrap the current fleet in favour of more modern vessels,” Mr Askeland says.
He adds, “Conversations about alternative fuels are still in the early stages and there is minimal bunkering infrastructure to support their use. While we believe fuels such as ammonia will see commercial take-up in the coming years, many operators continue to use HFO or a hybrid of VLSFO and HFO for their operations. Scrubbers are a suitable measure to meet regulatory standards for sulphur emissions and they offer vessel operators the flexibility to use the most cost effective and locally available fuel without risking ship detention or fines – all while demonstrating their commitment to reducing the environmental impact of their operations.”
New scrubber installations include Yara Marine’s proprietary Ratio Control system, which actively prevents over-scrubbing and reduces operational costs significantly. “We have made this efficiency gain accessible for existing customers with previously installed YMT scrubbers through an easy-to-install software upgrade,” says Mr Askeland.
He says Yara is also exploring the possibility of scrubbing future fuels to make ship operations even greener in the future.
He sums up, “At Yara Marine Technologies, we believe no stone should be left unturned when it comes to protecting our oceans, our fellow human-beings and the planet that we share. This is why our team is exploring multiple technologies including wind power, propulsion optimisation and more – and why our customers can expect us to find customised and flexible solutions to their challenges.”
Elsewhere, Sodaflexx managing director Gareth Hardy tells CST the Sodaflexx system was designed with a container vessel in mind. “It can be mostly containerised for ease of installation and flexibility for future requirements and can easily operate in a reefer cell if available.Furthermore, absorbent loading and residue disposal can be undertaken during normal cargo operations to ensure little to no downtime to the vessel,” he explains.
The USA patent-pending Sodaflexx exhaust gas cleaning system injects dry NaHCO3 (sodium bicarbonate, commonly known as baking soda) into a vessel’s exhaust gas stream, and in the heat and turbulence of the exhaust, a reaction occurs to neutralise sulphur compounds and capture black carbon and other organic compounds.Sodaflexx chief executive Barry Bednar adds, “The byproduct of this reaction is a benign salt Na2SO4 (sodium sulphate). Sodium sulphate is non-hazardous and pH neutral and is either safely emitted to the atmosphere or collected by our bespoke capture and treatment systems for disposal or repurposing onshore. We provide a range of system options that can provide exhaust gas treatment for all sulphur emissions requirements with no overboard discharge.
“The concept has been in use on thousands of land-based power plants for many decades, and we have adapted this technology for marine applications.Our patent-pending systems are now available for installation with short lead times. We do not require a drydock or any major vessel modifications, and installation can be performed in three to four days.Depending on fuel consumption and trading patterns, system payback can be in as little as a year.Our prices include turnkey installation, and we are available to install on a global basis.”
He explains Sodaflexx systems can be mostly containerised, and its modular design allows for flexibility for changing trading patterns and future IMO regulations.“The brain of the system uses machine learning to constantly improve optimisation of our systems across all installations, and proprietary protocols are used to adapt to future needs and performance requirements,” Mr Bednar adds.
Homing in on the container ship sector, Mr Hardy comments, “We understand many container vessel owners are looking to increase the amount of scrubber-equipped ships in their fleet – the financial incentive is too great to ignore.”
Looking ahead, the company is presently engineering a unique carbon capture system (CCS) that attaches to the Sodaflexx system.This offers synergies in capex and opex as the Sodaflexx system presents the exhaust gas to the CCS in a condition that it can easily capture the CO2, and the CO2 collection tanks can be containerised to be as modular as the Sodaflexx system.
Mr Bednar comments, “Without our system, the exhaust gas would have to be cooled and particulate matter removed by a separate system. Our extensive absorbent and residue supply system can also dispose of the captured CO2 for a streamlined SOx reduction, particulate matter capture, and CO2 capture operation.”
