Becker Mewis Duct celebrates tenth anniversary

Well over 1,000 units of the Becker Mewis Duct® have been sold to date, for both newbuildings and retrofits. Worldwide, emissions of CO2 have been lowered by more than seven million tonnes by employing the energy saving duct. “Our company has written a success story with this product,” says Dirk Lehmann, Managing Director of Becker Marine Systems, “and demand continues to grow unabated”.

Environmental rules to drive demand

Becker Marine Systems anticipates demand for the energy-saving device will rise once the new IMO environmental guidelines come into force in 2020. One reason for this are the stricter environmental regulations of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The IMO’s 2020 Sulphur Cap will increase fuel costs for ship operators who shift from heavy fuel oil to very low sulphur fuel oil or MGO. For the shipping industry this means considerable additional costs, which however can be reduced by lower energy consumption.

“By employing the Becker Mewis Duct, consumption is lowered by an average of six per cent for both empty and fully loaded ships,” says Lehmann, “reductions are often higher for older ships.” For this reason, many owners are choosing to retrofit their vessels with Becker Mewis Ducts.

“Delivery time is currently around three months, plus one week for retrofitting at a shipyard,” says the Managing Director of the ship supplier.

This means that there is enough time to react to the IMO 2020 regulation and to reduce the rising costs for fuel through the efficient use of the Becker Mewis Duct. The same applies to the guidelines relating to the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI). Here too, the Becker Mewis Duct is a tried and tested way of lowering CO2 emissions and enabling more sustainable shipping.

“By the combination of reducing additional costs and at the same time acting in a more environmentally friendly way, we expect a further increase in interest in the duct at our exhibition stand in Oslo”, commented Lehmann. The company plans to introduce other manoeuvring systems and energy saving solutions for ships at Nor-Shipping in June 2019.