Webinar - Assessing the added benefits of marine additives and lubricants
15 Jul 2020
 |
|
In a panel discussion to Lubrizol's "Assessing the added benefits of marine additives", Gulf Oil Marine's Paul Elliot, Technical Manager - Europe & Africa, explained the post 2020 regulatory changes and the challenges that they brought about.
With the increased usage of lower BN lubricants (such as 40BN and lubricants for ECA operations) as vessels switched to LSFO (<0.5%S), the need for increased detergency and dispersancy in the newly formulated 40BN lubricants added technological complications (and costs too).
There were also other challenges associated with having multiple grades onboard which increases logistical requirement, additional stock requirements & vessel operational complexities; all of which will incur additional costs.
Paul also discussed at length the challenges associated with switching bunkering oils; he shared a recent case in which a vessel experienced operational failure after switching bunker supplier. While the causes are still being investigated, the point is these changes can bring quite a lot of problems. Thankfully, such cases are sporadic.
For vessels trying to avoid all these bunkering changes, they will need to be fitted with abatement technology. Again, these come with costs and to the disappointment of some operators that installed open loop scrubber systems, regulations on such scrubber technologies were further tightened, dampening significantly the economics of these installations.
Paul concluded his discussion touching on the next generation work that's under development; the new technologies using future fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, etc.
For more information, please contact your technical contacts or our global team at technical.engineer@gulf-marine.com
|
 |
