Millions in costs due to discharge of scrubber water into the Baltic Sea
Discharge from ships with so-called scrubbers cause great damage to the Baltic Sea. A new study from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, shows that these emissions caused pollution corresponding to socio-economic costs of more than EUR 680 million between 2014 and 2022.
Discharge from ships with so-called scrubbers cause great damage to the Baltic Sea.
“We see a clear conflict of interest, where private economic interests come at the expense of the marine environment in one of the world’s most sensitive seas,” says Chalmers doctoral student Anna Lunde Hermansson, who is one of the authors of the new study, published in Nature Sustainability.
The study has been prompted by the ongoing discussion on a potential ban of scrubber water discharge – where large volumes of polluted water is produced and discharged from the ships’ exhaust gas cleaning systems.
Anna Lunde Hermansson, PhD student, Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Anna Lunde Hermansson and Chalmers colleagues Erik Ytreberg and Ida-Maja Hassellöv have been researching the environmental impact of shipping for many years and are contributing with their expertise in both international and national contexts. In a previous study, for example, they have shown that more than 200 million cubic metres of environmentally hazardous scrubber water is discharged into the Baltic Sea annually and that scrubber discharge water accounts for up to 9 percent of the total emissions of certain carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) into the Baltic Sea.
Erik Ytreberg, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
Excluding oil spill costs
In the new study, the Chalmers researchers calculated both the external costs of scrubber water discharge, and the financial balance sheets of over 3,800 vessels that invested in the scrubber technology. As for the costs associated with the degradation of marine ecosystems, the study shows that between the years 2014 and 2022, scrubber water discharges have polluted at a cost of over EUR 680 million in the Baltic Sea area.
Ida-Maja Hassellöv, Professor, Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
“If the scrubbers had not existed, no ships today would have been allowed to run on this dirty residual fuel. That is why the scrubber issue is highly relevant to push the shipping industry towards less negative environmental impact,” says Lunde Hermansson.
Restrictions in several countries
In terms of the shipowner perspective, the researchers calculated the costs of installing and maintaining the scrubber systems, as well as the monetary gain from running the scrubber-equipped vessels on the cheaper and dirtier heavy fuel oil instead of the more expensive low-sulphur fuel alternatives. According to the calculations, the majority of the shipping companies that invested in scrubbers have already reached break even, and the total surplus by the end of 2022 for all of the 3,800 vessels, was EUR 4.7 billion.
Recently, Denmark has decided to ban the discharge of scrubber water into so-called territorial waters, within 12 nautical miles of the coast. A number of countries around the world, such as Germany, France, Portugal, Turkey and China, have also adopted national bans or restrictions.
In Sweden, there is currently no general ban, although some ports, such as the Port of Gothenburg, have banned the discharge of scrubber water in their area.
More about the research:
The article “Strong economic incentives of ship scrubbers promoting pollution” has been published in Nature Sustainability. The study was conducted by Anna Lunde Hermansson, Ida-Maja Hassellöv, Tiia Grönholm, Jukka-Pekka Jalkanen, Erik Fridell, Rasmus Parsmo, Jesper Hassellöv and Erik Ytreberg. The researchers are active at Chalmers University of Technology, the Finnish Meteorological Institute and IVL, the Swedish Environmental Research Institute.
The research was funded by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, the Swedish Transport Administration and the EU’s Horizon 2020.
Source: Chalmers University of Technology
