Feature 2 | FINLAND’S MARINE INDUSTRIES The rub of the green
Te Baltic will be one of the most effected areas for SOx, NOx and Greenhouse Gas limitations. Green aspirations are welcome but, for Finnish interests, the timing of proposed changes may be difficult.
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ast year, new limitations on sulphur oxide emitted due to burning ship fuels were agreed on by the IMO.
The revised Marpol Annex VI, agreed
at MEPC 57 last spring, with the schedule somewhat revised by MEPC 58 in the autumn, will result in a progressive reduction in sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions from ships, with the global sulphur cap reduced initially to 3.5% (from the current 4.5%), effective from 1 January, 2012; then progressively to 0.5%, effective from 1 January, 2020, subject to a feasibility review to be completed no later than 2018. Te limits applicable in Sulphur Emission
Control Areas (SECAs) will be reduced to one per cent, beginning on 1 July 2010 (from the current 1.5%); being further reduced to 0.1%, effective from 1 January 2015. Progressive reductions in nitrogen oxide
(NOx) emissions from marine engines were also agreed on, with the most stringent controls placed on the so-called “Tier III” engines, i.e. those installed on ships constructed on or aſter 1 January 2016, operating in Emission Control Areas. New engines are subject to NOx emission reductions in two steps. Tier II standards will apply to engines installed on ships constructed on and aſter 1 January 2011. Te reductions are between 15.5% and 22% from the Tier I NOx limits. Tier III standards will apply, only in Emission Control Areas, to ships built aſter 2016. Te NOx limits are set at 80% lower than Tier I limits. Outside ECAs, Tier II limits will also
continue to apply aſter 2016. Tier I NOx requirements are to apply for existing pre-2000 engines, for ships built after 1 January, 1990, with a displacement ≥ 90litres per cylinder and rated output ≥ 5000kW, subject to availability of the approved engine upgrade kit. Te revised Marpol Annex VI will allow
for the designation of Emission Control Areas for SOx and particulate matter or NOx, or all three types of emissions from ships, in which more stringent controls would apply. Te revised Annex VI will enter into force
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on 1 July 2010, under the tacit acceptance amendment procedure. Some IMO administrations have also let it
be known that they aim at having measures in place to control Greenhouse Gas GHG emissions from international shipping before
“The good goal is to achieve a cleaner Baltic Sea. The Shipowners’ Association fully supports this goal. But the problem is the schedule.”
the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2011. Secretary General Eſthimios Mitropoulos has spoken in support of such moves. Further work on the limitation and reduction of GHGs from ships will continue at an intercessional meeting early in 2009, for presentation to MEPC 59 in July, which will benefit from the findings of the second and final part of the update of the 2000 IMO study. Te outcome of MEPC 59 will, in accordance with the Committee’s established action plan, be presented to the United Nations conference on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December 2010.
Green comes with a price Te Naval Architect talked to Tero Jokilehto, an adviser to the Finnish Shipowners Association, on the implications of these new agreed and proposed regulations. Te Helsinki Commission, HELCOM, recently established a correspondence working group, with members from all the Baltic countries, aiming to establish the potential of making
a 2010 proposal to IMO that the Baltic Sea should become a NOx Emission Control Area from 2016. Currently the Baltic and North Sea are SECAs. “Tere are two important matters related to
this,” said Mr Jokilehto. “Te good goal is to achieve a cleaner Baltic Sea. Te Shipowners’ Association fully supports this goal. But the problem is the schedule. We cannot cope with the 0.1% sulphur oxide limitation by the year 2015, and in addition the planned Tier III by 2016 in the Baltic. Te technology is not there yet to achieve these emission limits at a reasonable cost.” In September 2008, the Finnish Shipowners
Association handed over a study on the cost effects of the new sulphur oxide limits to the Finnish Government. Reducing the SOx limit from current 1.5% to one per cent by using low sulphur fuel would raise the total annual fuel bill for all vessels trading to and from Finland by some €300 million. Te cost of switching to MGO gas oil to achieve the 0.1% SOx limit by 2015 would in total cost €838.22m, the shipowners say. Te report also notes that, as fuel oil with SOx content of 0.1% does not exist, it has used MGO in the calculations. Te figures are calculated based on real traffic and ship machinery data for a 12 months period, from March 2006 to end of February 2007, using the fuel consumption of the main engines only. Te fuel price as of August 2008 was used in the calculations. Tis differs greatly from the price at time of writing, but it is fair to say that, as 2015 fuel prices are unknown, it is as good a yardstick as any.
Surprise in SOx “No one believed that the suggested time schedule for the reduced level of SOx emissions would pass in IMO”, said Mr Jokilehto. “It came as a real surprise for us. We concentrated on achieving a solution where technical solutions would be allowed to cut these emissions. In this we succeeded. Te mistake, which took place last spring, was not the level but the tight time schedule.
The Naval Architect February 2009
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