Baltic operator goes to Singapore for scrubber

TransTimber

NOVEMBER 21, 2014 — Swedish ship operator Rederi AB Transatlantic and wood and paper giant Stora Enso have gone to Singapore to find an exhaust gas scrubber that will operate under conditions in the Gulf of Bothnia, the northernmost part of the Baltic.

They have signed and started the installation of a cSOx scrubber from Ecospec, Singapore, in the 14, 200 dwt RO/RO TransTimber, which is managed by TransAtlantic Ship Management AB and was built 2007 in to serve Stora Enso’s paper and pulp production facilities.

The scrubber is being installed as a retrofit at Oresund Drydocks in Landskrona, Sweden.

A main criterion in the choice of scrubber was that it be closed loop, so that sulfur removed from exhaust gas stays on board the ship and is then delivered ashore for waste extraction.

The difficult operational conditions at TransAtlantic’s core markets include tough ice conditions and winter climate. For scrubber systems, an additional constructional constrain is that the company’s vessels sail in water with low salinity and far up north in the Baltic Sea almost totally fresh water.

The Ecospec cSOx scrubber being installed in TransTimber was developed for operations in the Baltic Sea through a close cooperation by Ecospec, Transatlantic and Stora Enso.region. cSOx is evaluated to be an efficient SECA 2015 [1] compliant solution for existing vessels.

“The sulfur reduction system, which will run in fresh water in northern Gulf of Bothnia with difficult ice conditions and extreme cold, has been a challenge. We are happy that we found a solution that finally meets these requirements in partnership with Stora Enso, ” says Heléne Mellquist, CEO Transatlantic AB