Nov 19 (LNGJ) - Malaysia has become the latest country to prohibit ships from discharging wash water from open-loop exhaust gas cleaning systems, also known as scrubbers, while operating in its waters. The systems are one of the options to meet the International Maritime Organization’s 0.5 percent sulfur cap from January. Malaysian energy company Petronas has emerged as new Southeast Asian bunker market participants and is also offering LNG as fully compliant fuel from 2020 at its terminals at Pengerang in Johor and Sungai Udang in Malacca. Ships entering Malaysian waters have been advised to change over to low-sulfur fuel oil or to closed-loop scrubbers.
Open-loop scrubbers spray exhaust with seawater, causing sulphur oxide to react and form sulphuric acid. However, EGCS manufacturers contend that the natural alkaline qualities of seawater neutralizes the acid, while opponents argue that the discharge is harmful to the marine environments. Malaysia is the latest to ban open-loop scrubbers following the same move by China, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Panama.
