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Netherlands-based AEC Maritime reports that a total of eight ships have already been outfitted with its sulphur oxide (SOx) scrubbers since the implementation of new International Maritime Organization (IMO) sulphur regulations at the start of the year.

Last year, Lloyd's Register approved and certified the AEC Maritime SOx scrubbing system, which was installed on the Schleswig-Holstein, operated by Scandlines.

Since then, Scandlines and other companies have ordered additional scrubber installations. The company says that it will have fitted at least 10 vessels with exhaust gas cleaning systems by the summer of 2015.

Apart from closed-loop systems, AEC now also has fully functioning open-loop as well as hybrid scrubbers and has installed them on newbuild vessels and carried out retrofits.

"Since all systems are tailor made, AEC could learn from each experience. This has resulted in an even more compact scrubber system and thus made SOx scrubbing even simpler," the company says.

Marcel Clephas, Technical Director of AEC Maritime, remarked: "We see these new orders as a vote of confidence in our technology. Our all-in-one system is characterized by simplicity.

"Our experience dates back to 1994 and includes extensive research on how to reduce emissions and odours. Our principals have applied this technology in no less than 2,300 land based scrubber systems. With this mature technology, we have made scrubbing simple."

For the shipping industry, AEC has a patent pending on the design of this scrubbing technology that is - because of the low back pressure - said to be applicable to all types of engines.

Scrubbing without filters and maintenance

The AEC scrubbing system has been fully operational since January 2014 on Scandlines' Schleswig-Holstein.

"We were intrigued by the simplicity of the AEC scrubbing system. Their technology works without filters. There is no pollution on the deck, no filters to clean and no maintenance," commented Fini Alsted Hansen, Technical Superintendent Fleet Management at Scandlines.

"After testing the AEC closed-loop scrubber system on our Schleswig-Holstein vessel we were so convinced that we ordered scrubbing systems for more vessels," he added.