SULPHUR CAP SAFETY ISSUES TAKE CENTRE STAGE

摘要

With Less than eighteen months until the IMO's rule limiting fuel sulphur comes into force, ship owners are understandably nervous. The low-sulphur fuel blends on which many ships will rely after 2020 have yet to emerge and, until they do, owners are in the dark about not just availability but also the operational implications of these fuels. An IMO intersessional meeting on the consistent implementation of the global sulphur cap, held in London on 9-13 July, offered an opportunity for member states to highlight some of the potential issues. While many of those worries focused on the new, compliant low-sulphur fuel blends, there were other concerns raised too. The Union of Greek Shipowners summarised safety concerns as relating to fuel stability, incompatibility between different batches of blended fuels, lower flashpoints than the minimum required by SOLAS, inadequate safety margins for cat fines and extended ignition delays due to poor combustion characteristics, to name but a few. Failure to address these challenges, the organisation pointed out, would naturally result in a significant threat to ships' crews and machinery and, by extension, to the marine environment.