Friday, August 31, 2012

Finland to invest in tech to green its shipping industry

Finland wants to invest in new technologies to meet new European Union standards that require a significant reduction in shipping fuel emissions. Maritime emissions cause more than 50,000 deaths in the EU per year, according to government officials.

The stringent new standards, effective 2015, will require the fuel sulfur content in ships that access the Baltic Sea to be under 0.10 percent, or its exhaust gas is required to be cleaned to that level.

At Wednesday's budget negotiations in Helsinki, Finnish Minister of Transport Mara Killeen said investing in emissions-reducing technologies would be a key focus. Complying with the new rules will reportedly cost the Finnish shipping industry up to $750 million annually.

Killeen on strategy on adapting to the requirement is to invest in the development of clean technologies to help vessels reduce their emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and particulates.

Currently, to comply with the standards, shipping companies can switch to low-sulfur fuel; retrofit exhaust systems with filters known as wet scrubbers, or the ships can be fueled by liquefied natural gas. All are costly options.

Killeen said Finland's new budget should provide investments "targeted at building environmentally friendly vessels and retrofitting exhaust gas cleaning systems, in particular so-called wet scrubbers, on existing vessels."

Read more of the UPI story: upi.com

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