Maersk Line will this week, celebrate the fifth anniversary of its switch from high-sulfur bunker fuel to low-sulfur distillate fuel in its vessels calling at California ports. The fuel switch program began March 31, 2006, when the Maersk Sine called at the Port of Los Angeles.
Maersk has since expanded its low-sulfur fuel program to Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, B.C., and Houston, achieving a reduction of 4,100 tons of pollutants at North American ports.
Maersk Line will this week, celebrate the fifth anniversary of its switch from high-sulfur bunker fuel to low-sulfur distillate fuel in its vessels calling at California ports. The fuel switch program began March 31, 2006, when the Maersk Sine called at the Port of Los Angeles.
Maersk has since expanded its low-sulfur fuel program to Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, B.C., and Houston, achieving a reduction of 4,100 tons of pollutants at North American ports.
Maersk is also using low-sulfur fuel in vessels calling in Hong Kong and at New Zealand ports, and it is committed to implementing fuel switch programs in at least 10 locations around the world by 2015.
"Sustainability is increasingly important in the board rooms of our customers, as well as in our own. Customers are looking at the environmental impact of their supply chains," said Lee Kinderberg, director environment and sustainability for North America at Maersk.
Maersk vessels switch to marine gas oil in their main engines while in transit in port areas as well as in their auxiliary engines at berth at ports in California and Houston. Vessels at dock in Tacoma, Seattle and Vancouver use the low-sulfur fuel in their auxiliary engines.
To date, Maersk vessels have logged a 95 percent reduction of sulfur oxides, 6 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides and 86 percent reduction in particulate matter emissions at North American ports. The vessels have used 60,000 metric tons of the higher-priced marine gas oil in 1,970 vessel calls, at a cost to Maersk of $20 million, the company said in a release.
Discussion about this post