Directive 2012/33/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, amending Council Directive 1999/32/EC and the later amendment 2005/33/EC, as regards the sulphur content of marine fuels, is now in force. It was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (EU) on November 27, meaning it should enter into force 20 days later (December 17, 2012). Member States have until June 18, 2014 to bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the revised sulphur directive.
Naeem Javaid, Senior Specialist FOBAS, Lloyd's Register EMEA, told a recent seminar in London that emissions legislation will compromise fuel quality. Mr Javaid went on to say that this phenomenon will impact both residual and distillate fuels.
To meet both lower sulphur limits, especially in emission control areas (ECAs), and expectations for low prices, suppliers will often blend so close to the sulphur limits that there may be compliance issues. Another temptation is to use low cost but "unpredictable blends stocks" when producing low sulphur fuel oil (LSFO), Javaid pointed out. An increase in fuel quality problems in LSFO compared to more traditional high sulphur heavy fuel oil (HFO) blends has been highlighted by several fuel testing agencies, including deterioration in ignition and combustion quality, an increase in the trend for contamination with catalyst fines and more issues with the stability and homogeneity of fuel blends.
For marine gas oil (MGO) Mr Javiad said that "Increasingly we see issues with MGO," One of the industry's concerns about MGO is the risk of cross contamination with biofuel blends intended for the automotive market. MGO testing off-spec for flash point is a similar concern.
The use of sea water scrubbing equipment allows vessels to consume higher sulphur residual fuels and negates these issues. With the legislation now agreed and a timescale published to implementation the shipping industry has the opportunity to position itself as an attractive disposition for higher sulphur residue and take advantage of not only a relatively cheap source of energy, but also one which has a significantly lower environmental impact that the carbon intensive process of refining more distillates.