Scrubbers: science, shipowner feedback, remote monitoring and future trends

Ecospray Technologies entered the scrubber business in 2012, having had a system under development since 2008, reported its marine department director Alberto Di Cecio.

“In April this year, we discovered we had surpassed 500 systems certified on board ships,” he said. The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is proving a challenge, but the company has completed more than 40 installations during the lockdown period with a local surveyor on board. “We are commissioning systems remotely. We have installed them on 251 vessels, 90% are retrofits and 10% newbuilds,” he said. The company has a healthy pipeline of sales and installations due in 2020 and 2021, he noted.

Keeping the installed systems in compliance is the main priority. Regarding compliance, he said, “We strongly believe in the automation of the system, especially remote connection. We have 24/7 remote assistance. We can implement software updates, troubleshooting and servicing.” Ecospray pays particular attention to the training aspect of the installation. “The more engagement we have with the crew, the better the usage rate,” he said, and this was an experience the company wished to pass on to the rest of the industry.

The other experience is to have a ready supply of spare parts around the world. “This is especially important for vessels with unpredictable itineraries,” he said. Looking back at what makes a successful installation, Mr Di Cecio noted that the more time spent planning the engineering, the better the outcome. The wish might be to standardise installations, but every ship has its challenges. “Installation engineering time is required to develop these customised solutions,” he said.

Where standardisation can be achieved is in the software. “Standard software and ease of use are important for the operator. Complicated software makes the operator reluctant to use it. Having key parameters always available makes life easier, too,” was Mr Di Cecio’s feedback. This includes quick access to functions such as soot blowing or manoeuvring.

Ecospray spends significant time and investment in research and development and is developing three new technologies. “The first is a plume elimination system to go beyond compliance in terms of smoke emissions. The goal is to eliminate any visible smoke from the stack, which can generate issues, especially with both state and local authorities,” he said. The second development is a new generation of catalyst for particle matter and NOx,” he said.

Some of these products are already available, and some are close to finalisation. These new or improved products will be available for the leisure and commercial markets. The third major development is a washwater filtration system. “We have a new generation of this technology currently in the commissioning phase,” said Mr Di Cecio.

PureteQ chief executive officer Anders Skibdal noted the company now has over 100 approved systems in operation and these are equipped with remote access. Customers are enthusiastic about this element and it has been a beneficial feature during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic lockdown. “It also saves a lot of time and we will continue to use the remote systems access a lot more after lockdown,” he said. “It saves time, effort and money not having to dispatch physical engineers to the ship, but instead guide the crew from a distance,” said Mr Skibdal.

Mr Skibdal’s feedback on service experience related to sensors, CEMS and WMS, dampers, and training and handover.

For sensors, he reported most of the problems are and have been caused by faulty installation, only a few problems were caused by the sensor itself. Often the problem was caused by relatively simple installation mistakes, such as the wrong type of connector used in installation, twisted communications and power cables or the wrong type of glands leading to electrical disturbance.

Referring to the dampers, he said “If these are not frequently operated, they tend to become stuck. Sometimes there are no inspection hatches to access and clean them. This is being improved by shipowners and shipyards and these issues are becoming less frequent.”

That said, Mr Skibdal was able to report an uptime and compliance rate of 98% to 99.8%. “To answer the question: are scrubbers reliable? The answer is definitely yes,” he said. Where there have been problems with scrubbers, social media means these are well documented. “You will all have seen the image of the water pouring into the engineroom,” he said. He commented there have been a few of these cases globally and the initial indications are that the crew had installed jumpers or other work arounds not approved by the scrubber manufacturer. “Sometimes, there has not been enough redundancy on the safety systems,” he said. Of course, in these cases, he was not referring to the PureteQ system, but to scrubber incidents in general.

The experience of these incidents and Mr Skibdal’s observations were surmised in a list of desirable features for safely operating a scrubber:

• Redundant drainpipe
• Hard-wired level switch
• Water catch system with level switch
• Manual emergency stops
• Installed flow sensors
• Riser pipe protection
• O/B valve protection
• Bilge level switch

The PureteQ system, noted Mr Skibdal, is on a journey from condition-based maintenance to predictive maintenance through the collection of hundreds of data points every hour. This breaks down into the extra cost of parts, consumables, calibration, service, and training depending on the size of the vessel:

• Smaller vessel = US$5-7/tonne of fuel
• Medium vessel = US$3-4/tonne of fuel
• Large vessel = US$1-2/tonne of fuel

Finally, Mr Skibdal noted that these lower costs can only be achieved through the correct and thorough training of the crew in the operation and maintenance of the scrubber system. Failure to do this would result in higher costs in the long term.

Polls and questions

An SECA is expected to be introduced in the Mediterranean. The webinar audience agreed, as 82% expect the entire Mediterranean to become a 0.10% SECA within the next 5 years.

Another driver is the spread between the price of HFO and VLSFO. When asked ‘At which price spread (HFO – VLSFO) would a scrubber investment be a valid business case for your organisation?’ the webinar audience voted 36% for US$150-US$200 per tonne of fuel, 28% for US$100-US$150, 12% for US$200 and higher, 6% for US$50-US$100, while 18% said it did not depend on price spread, but was about corporate policy.

In a further question, the audience was asked what they expect the spread between HFO and VLSFO will be once the world returns to normal, from the current coronavirus crisis. 42% said it would be around US$150 per tonne, 36% thought US$100 and 22% said US$200.

Panellists said investment in scrubbing systems would be more likely to be recouped in the medium term as the fuel price spread expanded. Although the price spread between the two has shrunk of late amid a global pandemic and disputes between oil producing nations, many analysts expect the spread to be more than US$100/tonne from 2021 onwards.

In addition to oil prices, Covid-19 has impacted installation of EGCSs this year with 51% of the audience forecasting there to be a slow recovery in demand for scrubbers in H2 2020. Another 41% expect demand to be stalled due to Covid-19 and its subsequent impact on the global economy and just 8% expected demand to significantly improve.

In the long term, poll results appeared to signal a feeling that additional demand is likely to come from abatement technology being introduced for other pollutants, perhaps driven by IMO legislation. When asked ‘Which of the following substances will be the subject for the next strengthening of IMO environmental/climate regulations?’ 34% of the audience forecast this to be CO2 and 21% particles in exhaust. Another 18% thought it would be washwater, 13% NOx and another 14% black carbon.