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The Shipping Industry
For decades, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has rebuffed calls to clean up ship pollution. As a result, while it has long since been illegal to belch black, sulphur-laden smoke from power-station chimneys or lorry exhausts, shipping has kept its licence to pollute.
For 31 years, the IMO has operated a policy agreed by the 169 governments that make up the organisation which allows most ships to burn bunker fuel.
Christian Eyde Moller, boss of the DK shipping company in Rotterdam, recently described this as ‘just waste oil, basically what is left over after all the cleaner fuels have been extracted from crude oil. It’s tar, the same as asphalt. It’s the cheapest and dirtiest fuel in the world’.
Bunker fuel is also thick with sulphur. IMO rules allow ships to burn fuel containing up to 4.5* per cent sulphur. That is 4,500 times more than is allowed in car fuel in the European Union. The sulphur comes out of ship funnels as tiny particles, and it is these that get deep into lungs.
Thanks to the IMO’s rules, the largest ships can each emit as much as 5,000 tons of sulphur in a year – the same as 50 million typical cars, each emitting an average of 100 grams of sulphur a year.
With an estimated 800 million cars driving around the planet, that means 16 super-ships can emit as much sulphur as the world fleet of cars. (article)
*UPDATE: The IMO has been working to reduce harmful impacts of shipping on the environment since the 1960s. Annex VI to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention) was adopted in 1997 to address air pollution from shipping. Until December 31, 2019 for ships operating outside Emission Control Areas, the limit for Sulphur content of ships’ fuel was 3.5% mass by mass (m/m). After January 1, 2020 a limit of 0.5% m/m shall apply.
I was a marine engineer in the late 70's early 80's. We always switched to diesel fuel 2hrs before our arrival at any port. The bunker fuel used at sea had to be heated and run through a high speed centrifical purifier before being burned in the engine. The purifier removed more sludge from the bunker but also generated sludge which would be stored in a sludge tank. The tank would be subsequently dumped at sea. Don't know if this practice is still used today.
Shipping Industry News
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Date yyyy-mm-dd |
Posted By |
Article Link |
Comment |
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2020-01-07 |
Energyandcapital.com |
Christian DeHaemer |
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2020-01-01 |
International Martime Organization (IMO) |
Sulphur content was 3.5% m/m reduced to .5% m/m after 1-Jan-2020 |
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2019-07-03 |
CBC News (BC) |
Electricity and water do mix: How electric ships are clearing the air on the B.C. coast |
Greg Rasmussen |
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2019-03-23 |
Interesting Engineering |
France Tries to Contain Oil Spill as 2000 Cars, Freighter Sink Off Coast |
John Loeffler |
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2018-08-26 |
CTV News |
Colette Derworiz - shipping industry |
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2018-06-14 |
Youtube |
The Largest Environmental Criminal in the world: The Netherlands (5 mins) |
- Dutch legislation allows bunker fuel to be mixed with highly toxic chemical waste. |
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2017-09-06 |
CBC News |
A cruise ship's emissions are the same as 1 million cars: report |
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2017-07-04 |
Independent.co.uk |
Air quality on cruise ship deck 'worse than world's most polluted cities', investigation finds |
Chloe Farand |
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2016-12-02 |
National Post |
Brady Dennis, The Washington Post |
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2015-04-10 |
CBC News |
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2009-11-21 |
Daily Mail (UK) |
How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world |
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Disclaimer: This information has been compiled through private amateur research for the purpose of allowing the reader to make an informed and educated decision. However, while the information is believed to be reliable, accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
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