Shipbuilder developing shipboard pollution removal system

Fincantieri and GE’s Shipboard Pollutant Removal System is expected to help vessels comply with MARPOL emissions limits scheduled to go into effect by 2020.

   Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri is joining forces with GE Power to co-develop a new emissions control solution to reduce pollution from ocean-going vessels, the two companies announced Tuesday.
   The new solution, called the Shipboard Pollutant Removal System, is expected to help control emissions to be compliant with the more stringent MARPOL emissions limits scheduled to go into effect by 2020.
   Under the agreement, Fincantieri will define the necessary technical requirements to design an emissions control system for a vessel, including constraints and improvements to develop a competitive product. GE Power will define the features necessary for an emissions control system that will help meet the performance targets.
   The new agreement, signed July 4 by Fincantieri CEO Giuseppe Bono and Sandro De Poli, president and CEO of GE Italy, follows a previous memorandum of understanding between the two companies from September 2016.
   “We are proud to announce this one-of-a-kind agreement,” Bono said in a statement. “In fact, no shipbuilder before had ever established a partnership to reduce emissions with a system manufacturer, that is one of among the leaders in the area in which it operates.”
   The new product, which would control sulfur oxide (SOx) and particulates emissions, is being developed for cruise vessels, but could be installed on any vessels using heavy fuel, according to Fincantieri.
   “This agreement builds on GE’s and Fincantieri’s long-term relationship and we are proud to develop such an innovative solution with one of the main shipbuilders in the world,” De Poli said. “To develop the Shipboard Pollutant Removal System, we will combine Fincantieri expertise and GE’s deep domain experience in air quality technologies for the reduction of pollutants in different fields, such as power, aluminum, iron and steel and waste to energy.”
   The two companies have not given an indication as to when the pollutant removal system might become commercially available.