Starting Jan. 1, 2015, SOX Emission Control Areas will be established in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the North American Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean. According to the Det Norske Veritas (DNV) "Future Development in Maritime Shipping" report, more than 15,000 ships are expected to be equipped with SOX scrubbers by 2020, representing a potential market of roughly €1 billion. GTM, a subsidiary of Marine Global Group, is an independent provider that has developed the smallest-footprint SOX scrubber that can be retrofitted into any seagoing vessel.
The GTM investment is Yara’s third investment targeting leading technologies on emissions to air. Adding leading technology to Yara’s global reach and delivery system positions Yara as a leader in the fast-growing emissions control business, now targeting the marine sector.
"In combining our existing portfolio of NOX technologies with SOX technologies, as well as with related supply of nitrogen based chemicals and services, we bring a unique total solution to the marine segment. This improves our delivery of a profitable business solution to harmful emissions to air," says Bonte.
Certified by Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the GTM technology is a single-stream technology that can be installed on ships instead of silencers. Easy to retrofit, it also benefits from a small physical footprint, and has already been selected by several companies, including Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Norwegian Cruise Lines.
Sulphur oxides cause a wide variety of health and environmental impacts. With asthma being the largest chronic disease of children in the Western world, authorities are addressing this issue through legislation. By using GTM scrubbers, ship owners can continue to operate on heavy fuel oil instead of more costly marine gas oil, while staying below the strict IMO requirements regarding sulphur emission.