Alfa Laval to equip Finnlines vessels with PureSOx scrubber systems

Offering services from Finland to Germany, North Sea Ports, Spain and via the Åland Islands to Sweden, as well as from Germany to Russia, Finnline’s North and Baltic seas operations will soon be subject to stricter emission limits in Emission Control Areas (ECAs).
“With Alfa Laval PureSOx, Finnlines will be able to continue using HFO in an area of operation where ECA limits apply as of January 2015,” said René Diks, Marketing and Sales manager for Exhaust Gas Cleaning at Alfa Laval. “In just a few months, having a scrubber like PureSOx on board will give these vessels an immediate fuel cost advantage over competitors who switch to distillates.”
“Finnlines’ objective is to guarantee long-term profitability through high-quality operations, and the installation of scrubber systems on our modern RoRo vessels is a major step in the implementation of our strategy,” Emanuele Grimaldi, president and CEO of Finnlines, added. “Installing PureSOx from Alfa Laval will allow us to comply with ECA limits while ensuring continued fuel economy.”
Retrofits of the RINA-classified Finnhawk, Finnkraft, Finnmill and Finnpulp will be conducted at yards in Northern Europe, with installation and commissioning taking place from December 2014 to January 2015.
Although the vessels all have four-stroke engines from MAN, their PureSOx configurations will differ somewhat. On the Finnhawk and Finnkraft, which have single engines of 12.6 MW, single-inlet scrubbers will be used. The Finnmill and Finnpulp each has two engines of 9.45 MW and will be fitted with multiple-inlet scrubbers. “Having multiple inlets will allow us to reduce the space and equipment requirements aboard the Finnmill and Finnpulp by using one scrubber to handle both engines,” Diks said.
The Alfa Laval PureSOx systems for all four Finnlines vessels are designed for open-loop operation with seawater, which means they are sized for the low alkalinity of the Baltic Sea. “The further north you sail, the less alkaline the Baltic Sea becomes,” Diks explained. “This has to be taken into account when installing an open-loop system for these waters, because the alkalinity of the seawater has a direct impact on the scrubber’s cleaning capacity.”
In addition, Finnlines has chosen a versatile scrubber design that leaves the possibility for a later conversion into hybrid systems.