The system will be designed to remain on board as a commercial installation following the successful demonstration.
The BELCO exhaust gas cleaning system can be used to reduce SO2 from ship engines and boilers as an economic alternative to using a more expensive low sulphur content fuel when operating in SO2 restricted areas known as emission control area (ECA) zones. This technology allows a ship to meet the International Maritime Organization’s ECA zones (or EU Ports) mandate of 0.1% sulphur even when using a lower cost fuel with sulphur content of 3.5% or more. The BELCO system can be installed on new ships and as a retrofit to existing ships.
“We have been investigating SOx scrubber technologies for several years to find appropriate technology for installation on our ships. We are pleased with our partnership with BELCO and trust it will bring us one step further in understanding our possibilities to improve environmental performance in a cost-effective manner,” said Bo Cerup-Simonsen, head of Maersk Maritime Technology.