Image credit: DFDS A/S

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DFDS has announced that will invest DKK 300m ($46.6m) in 2019 to install scrubbers on 12 ferries deployed on freight routes in the Mediterranean between Turkey, Italy, Greece and France.

The 12 scrubbers are to be supplied by ME Production - a Danish developer and manufacturer of customised emission reduction systems for marine applications that DFDS has cooperated with previously.

Commenting on the news, DFDS explained that hybrid scrubbers had been chosen as the optimal solution for the company's fleet in the Mediterranean in a move designed to ensure compliance with the upcoming global 0.5 percent limit on fuel sulphur content in 2020.

The Danish firm added that the 2015 strategy to fit scrubbers aboard its fleet to meet the 0.1 percent sulphur limit in northern Europe had "proven to be a success from both an environmental, operational and business perspective".

"We are happy to already now start preparing for complying with the new limit on sulphur content in emissions in the Mediterranean. This will bring environmental benefits for all. By applying DFDS' extensive experience of procuring, installing and operating scrubber systems we are achieving both operational and financial synergies," commented Niels Smedegaard, CEO of DFDS.

In addition to previously fitting exhaust gas cleaning systems developed by ME Production, DFDS also has a number of Alfa Laval PureSOx scrubbers installed aboard its fleet.

Back in October 2017, Alfa Laval reported that DFDS had 16 PureSOx scrubbers in operation on 13 of its vessels.

In 2018, the consumption of bunker fuel for DFDS's shipping division has been forecast by the firm to be around 500,000 tonnes.

Last year, DFDS spent DKK 1,272.1m (around $194m) on marine fuel, which was equal to 11 percent of the group's total costs.