Horizon Lines secures pollution waiver for Alaska ships

Permit allows waiver from emission control area requirement as scrubbers installed.    Horizon Lines has obtained a permit providing a conditional waiver from the North American Emissions Control Area (ECA) fuel sulfur content regulation.
   The permit is in force while Horizon pursues installation of scrubbers or exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) on the three ships it operates between Washington state and Alaska.
   Horizon will be allowed to burn fuel with up to 2 percent sulfur content. Previously, the carrier had been using fuel with 1 percent sulfur content, and new regulations that went into effect on January 1 have lowered the sulfur content in fuel for ships operating within the ECA to 0.1 percent.
   The permit, issued by the Coast Guard and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will allow the Horizon ships to use 2 percent sulfur heavy fuel oil in main engines until the scrubbers are installed. Horizon has entered into an agreement with Alfa Laval Aalborg Nijmegen BV for the design and procurement of the PureSox 2.0 EGCS for the D-7 ships.
   Horizon expects to spend approximately $18 million for the three scrubbers, which will be installed between September 2015 and December
2016. Horizon will use marine gas oil with the lower sulfur content of 0.1 percent in its generators.
   Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Horizon’s main competitor in the Alaska trade, is converting the diesel engines on its two ships so that they can use LNG. That conversion is expected to be completed at the end of September in 2016, and TOTE has also been granted a waiver that allows it to continue to use fuel with up to 2.2 percent sulfur.