The ecological risks of scrubbers for the marine environment are ignored while at the same time the economic benefits are overestimated, German environmental organisation NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) said commenting on the results of a new study.
The study was conducted by the Dutch research institute CE Delft for NABU on ecological and economic impacts of the use of scrubbers in the North and Baltic Sea.
Ship owners who opt for scrubbers invest a lot of money in the wrong technology, Rieger
“What came as a bad surprise is that obviously nobody ever systematically investigated the impact of scrubbers on the marine environment before entitling this technique as a proper ‘solution’ in the European Sulphur Directive. At the same time it is clear for everyone that simply discharging harmful substances into the ocean instead of to the air will not result in an improvement for the environment. Our report shows that currently scrubbers cannot be considered a solution, neither in ecological nor in economical terms,” NABU Chief Executive Officer Leif Miller said.
The environmentalist said these findings corresponded to the fact that a majority of renowned ship owners deliberately chose not to install scrubbers onboard their container vessels.
“Scrubbers must also be rejected as they allow ship owners to continue to sail on heavy fuel oil instead of investing in cleaner fuels and eco-friendly drives. Ship owners who opt for scrubbers invest a lot of money in the wrong technology. A switch to low sulphur fuels like LNG or marine gas oil in combination with particle filters and SCR catalysts is literally the cleaner solution, ” said NABU transport policy officer Daniel Rieger .
Further key findings of the study: