Wärtsilä hybrid scrubbers picked for newbuild box ships

Signing ceremony (L to R): From Jinhai Heavy Industry Co., Ltd, Supply Department, Ms. Summer Xia, Buyer, Mr. John Zhou, Vice General Manager and Mr. Zheng Jianzhong, General Manager. From Wärtsilä Ms. Heidi Paulsrud General Manager, Exhaust Gas Cleaning, Sales & Marketing, Ms. Yuan Alisa Ren, Sales manager and Mr. Peter Xu, Sales manager

JUNE 18, 2015 — Wärtsilä is to supply hybrid scrubber systems for three 2,500 TEU containerships on order at Chinese shipbuilder Jinhai Heavy Industry for a major European owner.

Scheduled for delivery in December 2015, the exhaust gas cleaning systems comprise two scrubber units per ship to clean the exhaust from both the main and auxiliary engines. This arrangement enables flexibility and cost savings when operating at different operational settings.

In all, 28 MW of total power output will be handled by the Wärtsilä system.

The design incorporates a cleaning system for the scrubbing wash water. This ensures that the eventual discharge water is well within the regulatory limits. Special care has also been given in the design to allow the systems to operate for extended periods with zero discharge of the effluent scrubbing water — an important advantage when the vessels are operating in environmentally sensitive waters.

“The ships will be operating at times in harsh climatic conditions and Wärtsilä has considerable experience in developing scrubber systems technology for use in challenging marine environments. The system is optimized to give the necessary flexibility in relation to the ships’ operations, with special emphasis given to minimizing the operational costs,” says Sigurd Jenssen, Director, Exhaust Gas Cleaning, Wärtsilä Ship Power.

Wärtsilä will provide engineering and consulting support during the installation, while the company’s global service network will ensure ongoing technical support throughout the lifecycle of the vessels.

Wärtsilä Hybrid Scrubber Systems enable the use of either closed or open loop technology to remove SOx from the exhaust. When operating in open loop mode, exhaust gases enter the system and are sprayed with seawater. Chemicals are not required since the natural alkalinity of seawater reacts with the sulfur and cleanses it from the exhaust gas. When operating in closed loop mode, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is added to the seawater as an alkali. The hybrid approach enables operation in closed loop mode when required, for instance when entering zero discharge areas or where the seawater alkalinity is low, and elsewhere the switch can be made to open loop using only seawater.