Safe Bulkers Installs, Commissions Its First Scrubber

Monaco-based dry bulk shipping company Safe Bulkers has installed and commissioned the first scrubber on board itd Post-Panamax vessel MV Martine.

The company informed that the 2009-built vessel now features an open loop, U-Type, Alfa Laval PureSOx scrubber.

During commissioning the new equipment was tested in several loads “complying comfortably with the stricter 0.1% sulphur fuel content limit applicable in Environmentally Controlled Areas (ECA),” Safe Bulkers said.

The installation of the scrubber was done concurrently with ballast water treatment system during the scheduled dry-docking of the vessel, as part of its second special survey at Cosco Guangzhou shipyard.

The company is scheduled to install another 18 scrubbers during 2019 and one more in the first quarter of 2020.

In September 2018, Safe Bulkers agreed a detailed schedule for the installation of Alfa Laval PureSOx scrubbers in about half of its fleet with Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry.

At the time, the company said it would install scrubbers in five Kamsarmax class vessels, thirteen Post-Panamax class vessels and the recently acquired Capesize class vessel, while it maintains an option for an additional scrubber.