The end of the heavy fuel oil (HFO) era?

Are we getting close to the demise of heavy fuel oil (HFO), the viscous, dirty, but inexpensive fuel for ships for the half century since the end of the coal-burning era?



This was a question asked by the International Council of Clean Transportation (ICCT).



It reported that sulphur content of HFO can be up to 35 000 parts per million (PPM). This is the reason that maritime shipping accounts for 8% of global emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), making the industry an important source for acid rain as well as respiratory diseases.



The governing body of international shipping, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), it noted in its report, has made a decisive effort to diversify the industry away from HFO into cleaner fuels with less harmful effects on the environment and human health.



Effective in 2015, ships operated within the emission control areas (ECAs) covering the Economic Exclusive Zone of North America, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, and the English Channel will begin to use marine gas oil (MGO) with allowable sulphur content up to 1 000 parts per million (ppm).



Starting from 2020, ships sailing outside ECAs will switch to marine diesel oil (MDO) with permitted sulphur content up to 5 000ppm.



But, despite a number of other more environmentally-friendly fuels being tested out in the marketplace, HFO will not completely disappear from the menu of marine fuels, according to the ICCT. Combined with scrubbers that capture more than 99% of the sulphur from the exhaust gas, HFO will continue to play an important role, it said.



Lloyds Registry reckons that HFO will still represent about 40% of fuel use by 2030.