Scrubbers on green ships raise questions
Scrubbers are increasingly being fitted onto vessels designed to operate on alternative fuels, which Alphaliner says shows an intention to operate on conventional power
Maritime intelligence company Alphaliner has identified a trend where dual fuel container ship newbuildings have scrubber technology installed with the apparent intention to operate the vessels on conventional fuels.
Dual fuel vessels built to operate on diesel and either LNG or methanol at both Chinese and South Korean yards are being delivered with scrubber technology, which is designed to clean sulphur oxides pollutants from exhaust gases, which neither LNG nor methanol emits in their exhaust.
Dual fuel ships initially relied on the price of conventional fuels rising to levels that made it cost-effective to use a higher cost green fuel, usually LNG, in some cases the fuel was rarely used as the price differential was not small enough to make the alternative fuel viable.
Since 2024 new regulations from the EU which has seen carbon pricing introduced has made the use of green fuel more affordable.
Shippers may, however, be concerned about such a development as they pay a premium for green fuels in order to meet Scope 3 emissions standards, but if carriers are burning cheaper conventional fuel they will want clarification on whether the emissions standards are being met.
“Carriers have increasingly opted to have exhaust gas scrubbers installed on ships designed to run on supposedly ‘cleaner’ fuels such as LNG or methanol. This indicates that the vessel operators apparently plans to run these ships on conventional bunker, at least some of the time,” said Alphaliner in this week’s review.
