Global Shippers Spent Billions On Scrubbers That Divert Carcinogenic Marine Exhaust Into The Sea
Global shipping companies have spent billions rigging vessels with “cheat devices” that circumvent new environmental legislation by dumping pollution into the sea instead of the air, The Independent can reveal.
More than $12bn (£9.7bn) has been spent on the devices, known as open-loop scrubbers, which extract sulphur from the exhaust fumes of ships that run on heavy fuel oil. This means the vessels meet standards demanded by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that kick in on 1 January 2020.
However, the sulphur emitted by the ships is simply re-routed from the exhaust and expelled into the water around the ships, which not only greatly increases the volume of pollutants being pumped into the sea, but also increases carbon dioxide emissions. The change could have a devastating effect on wildlife in British waters and around the world, experts have warned.
A total of 3,756 ships, both in operation and under order, have already had scrubbers installed according to DNV GL, the world’s largest ship classification company. Only 23 of these vessels have had closed-loop scrubbers installed, a version of the device that does not discharge into the sea and stores the extracted sulphur in tanks before discharging it at a safe disposal facility in a port.
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https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/10/thousands-of-ships-fitted-with-cheat-devices-to-divert-poisonous-pollution-into-sea-in-the-north-sea-and-some-parts-of-the-channel-the-water-quality-has-already-b.html
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