MAROFF Forprosjekt: Lynx maritime applications

Currently there are around 50,000 vessels sailing the seven seas that altogether consume about 370 million tons of heavy fuel oil a year. The sulfur content in the exhaust gases of ships should be reduced from 3.5 percent at present to 0.5 percent by th e year 2020 according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). As of 2015, there will even be a limit of 0.1 percent in the North Sea. This is a significant problem for many tankers, freighters and other types of vessels that operate in this regi on. This limit has already applied to all European ports since 2010. To comply many will have to be converted to other fuels at great expense. A less expensive, but just as effective alternative is retrofitting with scrubbers (exhaust gas cleaning devices ). Shipping companies have already responded to the new and coming regulations. When new ships are built, therefore, the owners either attempt to do without heavy fuel oil or to equip them with scrubbers. However, for all vessels currently in operation on the seven seas it would be expensive and, in some cases, even impossible to convert them to other fuels. In this case it would be economically more efficient to retrofit them with a scrubber. The best performing scrubbers consumes 2-3% of the total en gine power and can occupy volumes of up to 10 meters in height and 7 meters in diameter per exhaust line. To improve the effectiveness of the scrubbing process, it is suggested to pilot an installation of the Lynx Separator that is currently developed f or Oil & Gas applications. The Lynx separator is 50% more compact in weight and volume and has less of the drawbacks of the conventional scrubber technology. For atmospheric conditions such as in ships exhaus systems, it may be possible to compact the Lyn x separator significantly more than the 50% we are aiming for in the Oil industry.