Integrated Abatement

Ships will increasingly need to include some combination of the abatement technologies we have described, ideally integrated into complete subsystems offering defined and specified performance tuned the expected trading of the vessel over its lifetime and the specific needs of the shipowner.

The design will involve complex trade-offs between performance characteristics, costs and risks. These will be more efficient if the future value of different forms of abatement can be assessed and predicted. Is it, for example, better to minimise NOx emissions, even if this increased CO2 emissions? The more certain the future value of emissions reductions, the lower the investment risk, and so the easier it is to raise finance for it.

Given this complexity, there is little possibility that technical regulation will lead to optimum, or even efficient, investment in abatement. The traditional form of “command and control” specification of equipment standards and types leads to technical uncertainty, unpredictable outcomes, and high risk investments. SEAaT believes that appropriate Emissions Trading, with markets revealing values for each of the harmful emissions, will allow shipowners and designers to optimise their investments for their particular circumstances and patterns of trade. This will also reward innovation in any or all of the abatement technologies, giving sound commercial incentives to develop improved abatement methods and equipment.