Weighing up the SO_X options

摘要

Opinion in the marine world is split over the best way to achieve compliance with ever more stringent regulation on SOx emissions. Matters are not helped by the EU's determination to chart its own course and introduce restrictions that apply almost nowhere else in the world other than California where local state regulations are at odds with those prevailing elsewhere in US waters. A modern marine diesel engine is perfectly capable of burning a variety of fuels but switching between fuel types can be a complicated and time-consuming operation that also requires ships to be equipped with segregated storage for different fuel types. That applies equally to engines burning different types of oil fuels and dual-fuel engines burning either oil or LNG. In the case of the latter there is also a need for different fuel-delivery systems.