March 29, 2024

Discharging high-sulphur wastewater from scrubbers in Malaysian waters will be prohibited, Malaysian maritime authorities announced.

The use of open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems (‘scrubbers’), which discharge high-sulphur waste, within 12 nautical miles of Malaysian land will be prohibited.

Shipowners will have to use low-sulphur fuels or closed-loop scrubbers in Malaysian waters. Vessel traffic in Malaysian waters is high as Malaysian ports are key bunkering hubs, where ships go to refuel.

Other regions where open-loop scrubbers are banned include China, Singapore, Fujairah and the Panama Canal.

Shipowners have been installing scrubbers in their vessels to comply with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)’s 0.5% cap on sulphur content in marine fuel emissions, which comes into force on 1 January 2020.

Scrubbers remove sulphur from a ship’s emissions so a ship can continue to use marine fuels with 3.5% sulphur content, the current industry standard.

Open-loop scrubbers use seawater to neutralise the sulphur oxide in gas emissions and discharge the wastewater back into the sea. Closed-loop scrubbers use seawater mixed with sodium hydroxide or another reagent to neutralise the sulphur oxide in gas emissions and are fitted with a tank to hold the resulting wastewater.

Open-loop scrubbers have proved controversial. Earlier this year, Japan’s Ministry of Transport announced its view that discharge from open-loop scrubbers do not cause significant damage to marine ecosystems.

Facebook Comments

Add comment

Your email address will not be published.

Connect with Facebook

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Snehal Shah