Norwegian technology company Clean Marine is set to cut shipowners' investment and installation costs plus scrubber operating expenditure through the launch of a next generation marine exhaust gas scrubber application.
The newly developed SOx scrubber (“naked scrubber”) reduces total installed weight of infrastructure by more than two thirds, which means significant capex savings on the scrubber itself and no need to strengthen the ship structure prior to installation.
The simplified scrubber also reduces installation time from 4-5 weeks to 3 weeks, thereby cutting docking costs significantly too. A pre-fabricated electric room is one of the solutions that enable significantly shorter installation time. All critical components on the open deck scrubber are protected from harsh sea conditions.
“In total, our new scrubber application is significantly more competitive than other scrubber applications on the market and compared to the alternative of using low-sulphur fuels to meet the IMO2020 standards. This development is in response to many shipowners that have requested both lower capex and opex levels for marine scrubbers while being able to satisfy the IMO 2020 emission level requirements,” says Nils Høy-Petersen, CEO of Clean Marine.
The compact “naked” scrubber is a hybrid scrubber than can run with both open and closed loop, thereby avoiding conflict with ports that have prohibited the use of open loop scrubbers. It can easily be inspected and maintained by the vessel crew in order to maximise operational uptime.
The scrubber is made of high-grade stainless-steel material and is easily incorporated with the ship's boilers. It comes with a proven zero back pressure construction that has already had more than 10,000 hours of operation with boilers the past few years. Favourable placement of electronics and simplified cable connections make it easy to install and maintain. Which is often a time-consuming process during the installation.
“The big shipowners with a clear sustainability profile and plan seem largely unaffected by recent industry discussions. However, we believe this next-generation scrubber application could make it easier for other smaller ship owning companies to opt for a scrubber solution,” adds Høy-Petersen.
Clean Marine's technology has become one of the most favoured solutions for shipowners in the maritime and shipping industries, where zero backpressure and boiler connections has been in focus. As a result, the company's revenues trebled from 2016 to 2018. Further, Clean Marine expects 2019 revenues to be 6-7 times higher than in 2018.
“It is fair to say that the scrubber market has slowed down in recent months, but we have invested in production capacity worldwide that allows us to handle large orders and shorten delivery times. Our current order backlog requires us to deliver 8-10 exhaust gas systems per month in the run-up to IMO 2020. Instead of operating the vessels in the turmoil of January 2020, it could be beneficial to install a scrubber during that difficult time. We still have available production slots for shipowners that require scrubbers for delivery early 2020,” says Høy-Petersen.
Clean Marine's headquarter is based in Oslo. The company also has offices in Singapore, Bulgaria and in Houston, USA, plus service hubs in all major basins as well as sales representatives world wide. A large team of technicians supports customers during both installation and operation of the scrubber. The company is dedicated to emission cleaning only and is recognised as a highly competitive supplier of marine exhaust gas scrubbers.
Source: Clean Marine