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Norwegian firm Clean Marine AS has been selected by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in China to supply exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) for two 38,000 dwt chemical tankers being built for Stolt Tankers and NYK Stolt Tankers.

The two vessels form part of a series of six sister ships, where the remaining four vessels will be designed with the flexibility to add an EGCS at a later stage.

The Clean Marine order will enable these new vessels to comply with sulphur emissions legislation without switching to more expensive fuels.

Commenting on the news, Nils Høy-Petersen, CEO at Clean Marine, said that the contract reflects the growing demand for the company's 'unique and competitive multi-stream EGCS solution'.

"We are very pleased to experience a breaktrough also in the Chinese shipbuilding market and to be selected by Hudong-Zhonghua, a yard which during its 70 years history has delivered over 3,000 quality ships. We also look forward to delivering a cost-effective solution to help Stolt Tankers comply with the new emissions regulations which comes into force from 2015," Høy-Petersen said.

Stolt Tankers operates globally and has one of the world's largest fleets of chemical tankers. The Stolt Tankers fleet consists of more than 150 ships and barges. The company says it has a strict focus on safety and environmental protection and that the EGCS from Clean Marine will ensure that the new vessels operate well within all applicable local and international regulatory requirements.

Clean Marine has developed an EGCS based on the Advanced Vortex Chamber technology that is said to provide 'unique cleaning efficiency'. The system's integrated fan and gas recirculation technology allows the one EGCS unit to simultaneously serve several combustion units. The system supplied to Stolt Tankers is a hybrid system that allows the vessel to operate seamlessly in all types of water (including low alkaline and saline water) without loss of efficiency. Furthermore, the Clean Marine EGCS meets the current pH limit for washwater discharge in Europe and USA with good margin.

"For vessels operating in European or US waters, inside the emission control areas (ECAs), a maximum sulphur limit of 0.1 percent will apply from January 2015," remarked Høy-Petersen. "The Clean Marine system supplied to Stolt Tankers will clean both sulphur oxides (SOx) and particulate matter emissions from one main engine, three auxiliary engines, and three boilers. In total, a single Clean Marine EGCS unit will manage seven exhaust sources and will be designed to clean 140,000 kg exhaust per hour."

Installation of the EGCS unit is scheduled to take place in 2015.

Image: Stolt Capability.