Marine SOx reduction
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) revised its standards on the sulphur content of marine fuels in 2008. These were included in Annex VI to the International Convention for the prevention of Pollution from ships (MARPOL Convention). Since 2020, the current global limit for the sulphur content of the fuel oil used by ships has been 0.5% m/m (by weight). For vessels sailing in Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs), the sulphur limit has been 0.1% m/m since 1 January 2015.
Marine sulphur emissions can be reduced by:
• reducing the sulphur content of the fuel used
• removing sulphur from the exhaust gas
• operating on cleaner fuel such as liquefied natural gas (LNG)
Wärtsilä provides several solutions to help customers reduce emissions of SOx and comply with local and global regulations. Wärtsilä's technology development supports solutions that enable the use of fuels with different sulphur contents, as well as systems that clean sulphur from exhaust gas and enable the use of alternative fuels with close to zero sulphur content, e.g. natural gas. Wärtsilä exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) not only reduce SOx emissions but also remove large levels of particulate matter (PM) and black carbon. The Wärtsilä EGCS can be customised for both the 0.1% limit in Emission Control Areas (ECA) and the global 0.5% cap agreed within the IMO.