News

Ship traffic air pollution in the Mediterranean Sea can significantly be reduced by introducing an Emission Control Area (ECA), concludes a French impact assessment investigation pointing out economic, health and environmental cost-benefits.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) considers exhaust gas scrubbers to be an acceptable means of reducing vessels’ sulphur emissions and ensuring compliance with MARPOL Annex VI. A separate guideline, Resolution MEPC.259(68), specifies the requirements for the verification, testing, survey and certification of scrubber systems and sets out the criteria for discharging scrubber wash water into the sea.
However, some coastal states and ports have implemented local regulations with more stringent requirements that restrict or completely prohibit the discharge of wash water from open loop scrubbers or prohibit the use of scrubbers.

The shipping market may see a more positive year in 2019 amid changes in fleet size and shifts in demand for methanol, although ongoing political tensions, growing participation from Russia and looming regulatory change for 2020 could prompt an uncertain couple of years.

A team of researchers at the University of Calgary, Canada, developed a sponge for soaking up aquatic oil spills that is composed of magnetic boron nitride.

The Gulf of Elefsina, the chief industrial shipyard area in Greece is home to dozens of abandoned cargo ships and passenger ships. Now, the Greek Government plans to haul these hulking remains of a cargo ship which rise up through the water, says a report published in The National Post.