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Cruise: Hapag-Lloyd Cruises waives heavy fuel from 2020

2019-09-30T10:56:15.128Z


In the climate debate, the cruise is particularly bad way. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises has now announced that it will set sail in the future without heavy fuel oil. But environmental experts are not enough.



Hapag-Lloyd Cruises wants to reduce the burden on the environment from summer 2020 with less sulfur oxide - and completely refrain from using heavy fuel oil as fuel for its cruise ships. Already at the beginning of the year, the shipping company had announced that it would gradually change the expedition ships. From July, the two luxury cruise ships "Europe" and "Europe 2" are to be operated with marine gas oil, as the company announced in Hamburg.

Cruise ships have been criticized by environmentalists for some time. Heavy oil is considered a particularly environmentally harmful fuel, which is produced as a waste product in oil processing.

With the future use of marine gas oil, which has a sulfur content of less than 0.1 percent, sulfur emissions are reduced by 80 percent, emissions of particulate matter and soot by 30 percent, according to the company.

The fine dust remains

But this is exactly the problem according to the opinion of environmentalists. With the abandonment of this fuel, you'll only get rid of the sulfur oxides, says Daniel Rieger, head of transport policy at the Nabu Federal Association. The problem that remains with the cruise: the polluted air. "As long as no exhaust technology is used, the pollution caused by particulate matter, soot and nitrogen oxides remains high," says Rieger. The Nabu therefore continues to demand particulate filters on board all cruise ships.

After all, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises already uses nitrogen oxide filters on some ships, such as the "Europa 2". But so far, the operation is not easily possible. "The development of soot using heavy fuel oil is so great that the exhaust technology does not work," says the Nabu expert. The use of marine diesel, on the other hand, would allow the use of particulate filters.

His conclusion: "The decision of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is an important and correct step." The industry must necessarily ban heavy oil from the oceans.

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From 2020, stricter regulations on sulfur emissions from ships will apply worldwide anyway. The sulfur limit is then 0.5 percent. However, ships equipped with scrubbers may continue to use heavy fuel oil with a sulfur content of 3.5 percent.

Are cruises now more expensive?

The marine gas oil now used by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is significantly more expensive compared to heavy fuel oil. CEO Karl J. Pojer speaks of "massive costs". However, the routes with binding prices would be planned and published two years in advance - ie price increases are not yet on. "For us, this transition is an important investment in the future and environmental protection," said Pojer.

Especially in comparison to larger ships, which often drive over several months similar routes in a region, the change for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises with ever new routes is a major logistical challenge, so Pojer.

The Naturschutzbund (Nabu) has published this year's cruise ranking just a few weeks ago. In first place and two ships with LNG propulsion landed. This was followed by ships whose owners use nitrogen oxide catalysts (such as "Europa 2", the TUI Cruises fleet) and / or voluntarily abandon heavy oil altogether (Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and Ponant).

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2019-09-30

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