Clean Arctic Alliance denunciation that some marine fuel mixtures VLSFO increase the emissions of black carbon



The Clean Arctic Alliance, association formed from organizations non-profit whose objective is that the use of heavy the fuel oil as naval fuel in waters of the Arctic is prohibited, has sped up the oil companies to take note that some they new marine fuel mixtures to low sulfur content prepared and commercialized in order to comply to the new standards introduced from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), based on which they give slid to the first January the maximum limit of the sulfur tenor in naval fuels must be of 0.50% compared to the previous 3.50%, they will carry to an increase of the emissions of black carbon, fine member of the particulate matter that Clean Arctic Alliance denunciation to be super a polluting one that accelerates in important way the issolution of the Arctic ice.

"If the International Maritime Organization does not assume immediate measures - Sian Prior, lead advisor of Clean Arctic Alliance has explained - the use by the field of the shipping of VLSFO, the fuel oil to lowest introduced sulfur tenor in order to respect the limit of sulfur tenor of 2020, will carry to a solid increase of the black carbon emissions and this will accelerate the issolution of the Arctic marine ice and will have also a remarkable impact on the climate of the earth".

The Clean Arctic Alliance has anticipated that a document deposited from Germany and Finland near the subcommittee Pollution Prevention and Response of Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the IMO in sight of the next reunion of the organism that will hold from the 17 on 21 February evidences that these new fuel mixtures contain elevated levels of aromatic compounds that, once burnt, determine an increase of the emissions of black carbon regarding heavier fuel and to the distilled ones it play hooky. The document - it has specified the Clean Arctic Alliance - asserts that the results "indicate clearly that the new marine fuel mixtures with a sulfur content of 0.50% can contain an important percentage of aromatic compounds that have an impact directed on the emissions of black carbon" and "they have demonstrated that the fuel combustion with more elevated aromatic content emits elevated concentrations more than black carbon".

The Clean Arctic Alliance has sent a letter to the associations that represent the oil industry and the companies of the field denouncing this problem and asking explanations. "There are - it has specified John Maggs, senior policy advisor of Seas at Risk, organization enviromentalist who joins to the alliance - a series of questions to which answering on as these polluting fuel "super Frankestein" can arrive on the market. It is found it hard to believe - it has emphasized Maggs - than right in the middle a total climatic crisis the industry of marine fuel can have developed these VLSFO without to know their effect on the emissions of black carbon and the climate, in particular that of the Arctic, above all because the IMO has spold almost a decade to estimate as reducing black carbon emissions the produced from the marine transport".

The demand for explanations has been collection from The African Refiners & Distributors Association (PLOWS), International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA), International Council on Combustion Engines (CIMAC), Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST), IPIECA, Japan Petroleum Energy Center (JPEC), Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) and The Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA). These associations have sent a letter opened to the Prior doctor of the Clean Arctic Alliance reassuring it in the first place on the fact that the organizations signers of the missive support in full load the programs of reduction of the emissions and decarbonizzazione of the IMO and remembering that they have worked hard near the International Maritime Organization in order to reduce the impact of the shipping on the atmosphere.

Coming to the point, the associations that represent operators of the field of the production, commercialization and distribution of marine fuel, they have explained that the companies of the field expected that the fuel with a sulfur tenor of 0.50% had a greater tendency to being paraffinici that aromatic. "The information available beginning from the introduction of the sulfur limit of 0.50% of first January 2020 - they have specified - indicate that in general terms our expectations were corrected". "In order to conclude - they have replied to the Prior - we agree totally on the fact that all the relative communications to the black carbon, included the combined communication of Finland and Germany to the IMO dated before the introduction of the limit of sulfur of 0.50%, would have to be examined in a serious way and deepened from the international community of the fuel suppliers oil and the shipping. The next subcommittee Pollution Prevention and Response of the IMO will be the more effective center in order to get ahead this debate. For our part he would not be adapted to anticipate the conclusions of such argument".