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APL vessels testing clean-air technology
Updated 12:21 p.m. ET, Tue Dec 5, 2006
By Bill Mongelluzzo
The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
Ocean carrier APL Ltd. will deploy three pollution-reduction technologies for tests on its vessels calling at California ports.
If the demonstration projects prove favorable, the technologies in aggregate could reduce pollution from container ships by about 50 percent, the carrier announced Monday.
At a press conference aboard the 5,100-TEU APL Singapore, company officials said that in February it will begin testing water-in-fuel emulsification, a process that injects water into the bunker fuel burned by the ship's main engine. APL believes emulsified fuel can potentially reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by as much as 20 percent.
The company also will test the use of slide valves on marine engines to reduce the leakage of fuel that remains in the fuel injection nozzle when the nozzle is closed. Slide valves are a proven technology that could reduce emissions of particulate matter and hydrocarbons in the exhaust by almost 50 percent.
Also, APL will test an advanced cylinder lubricating system that optimizes the amount of lube oil required for the cylinder liners . The 20- to 50-percent reduction in cylinder oil consumption anticipated from the lubricating system will reduce particulates in vessel exhaust.
The technologies APL will demonstrate are the latest example of voluntary steps that ocean carriers calling at California ports are taking to comply with the nation's strictest standards for air pollution.
The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last month jointly announced a clean air action plan designed to reduce port-generated pollution from all sources by 45 percent over the next five years. The Port of Oakland is also implementing stricter requirements for reducing pollution.
Representatives of federal and state environmental agencies joined the APL executives to discuss the impact these and other technologies could have on reducing pollution from vessels. Burning ultra-low sulfur diesel in a vessel's main and auxiliary engines and operating vessels at berth from shore-side electrical power are other emerging technologies in the industry.
Wayne Nastri, regional administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said the EPA welcomes the testing and implementation of all technologies that could reduce vessel emissions. Regulators set emissions goals for the maritime industry, and the marketplace will determine what combination of technologies most effectively meets those standards, he said.
The water-in-fuel technology has good potential because it can be utilized on existing vessels by modifying their engines. "It is very difficult to find a solution for existing vessels," said Wayne Miller, a professor of emissions and fuels at the University of California-Riverside, which will monitor and quantify the results of the three-year demonstration project. The project will also analyze the effects that emulsified fuel has on a vessel's engine.
John Bowe, president of the Americas for APL, said California has led the way in requiring pollution-reduction efforts at ports, but carriers are facing growing pressure throughout the world to reduce emissions from ocean vessels.
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