Image credit: Wartsila

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Technology group Wartsila and Norway's Wilhelmsen Ship Management have signed a five-year agreement covering the maintenance of exhaust gas cleaning systems, or scrubbers, installed on three vessels managed by Wilhelmsen Ship Management.

The agreement is designed to ensure that the ships are fully MARPOL compliant and fulfil the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) stricter sulphur limits, due to come into force on January 1, 2020.

All three vessels have a 25MW Wartsila Hybrid Scrubber System installed, which is able to operate in both open and closed loop, using seawater to remove SOx from the exhaust gas. In closed-loop mode, additional reagent is used in combination with sea water.

The services covered under the agreement, signed in December 2017, include annual audits and safety tests to ensure ongoing MARPOL compliance, calibration of the Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) and water monitoring system as well as operational training courses for the vessels' crew.

"For Wilhelmsen Ship Management, operating sustainably and maintaining MARPOL compliance is absolutely crucial. This agreement with Wartsila ensures that we are doing it in a correct and documented way to fulfil authorities' requirements. Additionally, it allows us to perform long-term cost predictability and channel more focus into critical ship management operations," commented Jon Helge Ulstein, Vessel Manager at Wilhelmsen Ship Management.

"Wartsila's purpose is to enable sustainable societies with smart technologies. We want to build awareness of sustainability and provide solutions that help customers reduce or eliminate emissions. This agreement with Wilhelmsen Ship Management does exactly that by ensuring that the vessels comply with the strict sulphur limits set by IMO's standards. Additionally, the agreement provides Wilhelmsen Ship Management with predictability of the vessel maintenance costs," remarked Glenn Holid, Sales Manager at Wartsila Moss.

Wilhelmsen Ship Management is one of the world's largest third-party ship managers with a portfolio of more than 450 vessels. Wilhelmsen Ship Management manages the ships from five offices worldwide.