Since 2018, maritime flue gas purification has also been one of our business areas. In this case, we have been providing installation supervision, commissioning and various services for gas scrubbers in particular, which are used to remove dust and desulfurize exhaust gases in view of stricter environmental limits in the maritime industry. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards that recently came into force, the sulfur permitted in fuel will be gradually reduced and from 2020 is only allowed to amount to 0.5 percent. This means that shipping companies are faced with the challenge of efficiently combining environmental protection and economic efficiency. To avoid having to switch to the much more expensive low-sulfur fuels, it is worth installing a scrubber, especially on larger ships.
Similar to energy and power plant technology, a distinction is made between two filter processes in maritime flue gas desulfurization:
Dry desulfurization (dry scrubber)
The dry process binds sulfur by injecting a sorbent (e.g. calcium hydroxide) into the exhaust gases of the ship’s engine. This produces residual materials (e.g. gypsum), which are initially stored on board and later processed or disposed of on land.
Wet desulfurization (wet scrubber)
The wet process uses seawater in a wet scrubber to desulfurize the flue gases. The scrubbing water used, containing the sulfates and other substances such as metals and soot, is either discharged back into the sea (open loop scrubber) or stored on board (closed loop scrubber). Hybrid scrubbers have both an open and a closed loop.
Since these desulfurization technologies have already been tested for decades in industry on land and have merely been adapted to the process engineering conditions of shipping, we are already very familiar with the systems used there and can draw on many years of experience and expertise in the field of flue gas purification. Experience has shown that the time and organizational coordination of the work between the ship owner, the shipyard, the scrubber supplier and the engineering office in particular poses a major challenge during the installation, commissioning and servicing of the scrubbers. We therefore have qualified employees from the most diverse regions of the world, who can also be deployed globally within a very short time.
It goes without saying that, in addition to the obligatory seaman’s certificate, our engineers also possess all the necessary qualifications and requirements (e.g. Green Instruments Training Certificate, Sick Sensor Intelligence Academy Certificate, etc.) that entitle them to handle the relevant desulfurization systems, including all auxiliary and ancillary equipment, at sea.
