New blending system aims to reduce ECA costs

Danish company Insatech has developed a new blending system the " Smart Sulphur Switch S3 system (S3)" which can reduce shipping companies' additional costs of complying with MARPOL Annex VI requirements within Emission Control Areas (ECAs).  Insatech says that the price of the S3 system  is less than 5% of the cost of a scrubber. The S3 system has the ability to always blend and adjust two fuels to the desired sulphur content. This enables monitoring and control of sulphur emissions. The system logs and reports nett fuel sulphur content, density, and the ship's position and speed.
The company says that, outside ECAs, the cheapest fuel can be burnt and when entering an ECA, the MGO and HFO blend can be adjusted in order to meet the allowed sulphur emission in the area.
The S3 is claimed to offer shipping companies significant savings by simplifying the logistics fuel handling, minimising the range of fuels needed aboard, reducing the number of bunker operations, and limiting consumption of the more expensive MGO. In addition, Insatech says, use of chemicals is avoided and construction costs and downtime during installation are minimized.
The S3 is said to be easily retrofitted and the ship does not have to be docked in order to mount the system as it can be easily mounted while the ship is at sea. Maintenance is limited to one yearly calibration.
Source: Insatech