Bilfinger in €100m scrubber deals

Most ships are currently propelled by heavy fuel oil containing up to 3.5% sulphur but stringent new guidelines coming into effect in January 2020 have reduced the permissible sulphur content to 0.5%. Scrubber technology is one way of reducing the sulphur content of emissions and can be cheaper than using low sulphur fuels such as LNG.

Chief executive, Tom Blades, said that Bilfinger’s scrubbers “stand out for low operating costs, excellent environmental performance and high system reliability.”

“Bilfinger has decades of expertise in flue-gas cleaning. This enables our customers to continue safely operating their vessels in what is becoming a stricter regulatory environment,” he said.

Since Bilfinger moved into the maritime sector around two years ago, orders received have come to around €102m. Current customers include shipping companies from Germany and Greece as well as a shipyard in China.

The company supplies both open-loop and hybrid scrubbers through its full-service package which offers development, fabrication and maintenance.