APL ship testing seawater scrubber
An innovative air pollution-reduction device called the 'seawater scrubber' will be tested on an APL containership as part of a $3.4 million project co-sponsored by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and starting this spring.
Seawater will be used to filter pollutants from ships' auxiliary engines and boilers. It is expected to reduce a ship's sulfur oxide emissions by up to 99.9 percent and particulate matter by as much as 85 percent.
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'The seawater scrubbing technology shows tremendous long-term potential for reducing emissions at our ports and improving the environment,' said Geraldine Knatz, the Port of Los Angeles executive director.
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| Knatz |
The seawater scrubber, supplied through a partnership between Bluefield Holdings Inc. and Krystallon Ltd., features advanced emission control technology in which seawater is used to scrub, or filter, contaminants from a ship's auxiliary engines and boiler before exiting the exhaust stack of a ship. Once solid carbon contaminants have been removed, the seawater used during the scrubbing process is then treated and cleaned before being discharged. The solid contaminants are contained and collected for later disposal.
The scrubber technology on the APL test vessel will be evaluated over a one-year period during the ship's calls to the San Pedro Bay ports. It's expected to result in air emission reductions of about 80 percent to 85 percent in diesel particulate matter, 99.9 in sulfur oxide emissions, more than a 90 percent decrease in volatile organic compounds (VOC) and another 10 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide pollutants.
The technology is being tested on the APL England, a ship in APL’s Pacific Coast Express service that calls at ports in Korea, China, Japan, California and Alaska.
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| APL England |
The technology could be used while ships are underway or just in port.
Diesel particulate matter is classified in the state of California as a toxic air contaminant based upon its potential to cause health problems and cancer. Sulfur oxides, VOC and nitrogen oxides are gases that contribute to smog.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has put strict requirements on operators of containerships and other vessels that regularly call California ports to reduce pollution when docked. Most companies plan to meet those requirements by turning off their auxiliary engines running their ships when docked with shore-generated electric power, a process referred to as “cold ironing.”
A spokesman for APL said the scrubber technology is “not currently recognized by CARB as an alternative means of compliance. It’s conceivable CARB could recognize the technology after the team submits testing data.” He added that it was too soon to say what such units would cost on a production basis as the company is testing a one-of-a-kind prototype.
The entire project, which has a three-year lifespan, is funded in part by a $1.65 million grant from the Technology Advancement Program (TAP), a joint initiative of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that focuses on accelerating the commercial availability of new clean air strategies to reduce air pollution. ' Chris Dupin