Finland's Wartsila, a manufacturer of exhaust gas cleaning systems, or scrubbers, is exploring the potential for the units to strip not just sulfur but carbon dioxide from ships' emissions, a move which could stave off obsolescence as the maritime industry moves from sulfur to CO2 caps.
Initial findings show that CCS on ships is a technically viable avenue for the sector to pursue and to further accelerate development, Wartsila is installing a 1 MW pilot plant at its test facility in Moss, Norway, the company in a statement March 16.
"Carbon capture and storage, enabled by scrubbers, must take a central role within the suite of solutions helping to drive decarbonization in shipping, including alternative fuels and efficiency technologies," Wartsila said. As there is no single solution to minimize shipping's environmental impact the sector must innovate broadly across multiple areas, the company added.
"Exhaust gas abatement technologies have reached a point of maturity where it is only right that we explore their wider applications beyond sulfur compliance," Sigurd Jenssen, director for exhaust treatment at Wartsila, said in the statement.
The International Maritime Organization decreed that from Jan. 1, 2020 ships could emit no more than 0.5% sulfur when on the high seas. In most cases this meant ships switched from burning 3.5%S fuel oil to 0.5%S fuel oil but scrubbers allow vessels to continue burning cheaper 3.5%S FO and to remain compliant.
Next, the IMO is focusing on reducing the carbon intensity of the international shipping fleet by 40% by 2030, compared with 2008 levels, moving to a 70% reduction by 2050. Additionally, the IMO is targeting a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from ships by 2050.
Scrubbers resolve the IMO's 2020 target but, overtly, not the 2030 target, still less the 2050 target.
Beyond sulfur
Scrubbers do have some track record in abating emissions other than of sulfur.
The Clean Shipping Alliance 2020 said earlier this year that in addition to achieving much lower sulfur reductions than required by IMO 2020, and reductions of other pollutants as well, there were added advantages in using a scrubber.
"On a well-to-wake basis, EGCS-fitted vessels have a lower CO2 footprint than the most widely-used alternative fuel options of MGO and VLSFO," Paul Woodall, executive director at CSA, said recently.
Italian maritime logistics group Grimaldi Group has received a new scrubber-equipped vessel which, despite running on 3.5%S FO, has a carbon intensity "well below" the IMO 2030 target, a spokesman said at the start of the year.
Wartsila's next step for scrubbers, if successful, could build on this.
"This is important in the context of the industry's overall decarbonization transition, as it will enable us to safeguard existing assets as we move to a cleaner mode of operating," Jenssen said.
