With an eye toward cutting emissions from one of the toughest pollution sources — ocean-going vessels — Port of Los Angeles commissioners on Thursday, Oct. 5, unanimously approved participation in funding a test for a new technology coming out of Finland.
The Port of Long Beach also is slated to participate, with each port contributing $300,000 under a memorandum of understanding. The lead agency is the South Coast Air Quality Management Department (AQMD), which is using an $11.4 million grant to carry out the retrofit project that will retrofit two ocean-going vessels with low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation and a multiple fuel conversion system.
Total cost is $20.9 million with Mediterranean Shipping Company and Wärtsilä — an international leader in ocean vessel and energy technology based in Finland but with 240 locations in 79 countries — pitching in the rest.
“AQMD came to us wanting to do this project with Wärtsilä,” said Port of Los Angeles Director of Environmental Management Chris Cannon in his presentation to the board.
The company, Cannon said, “is very good, well-known and respected” in the field.
AQMD, he added, “have been good partners and we have a good relationship working with them. So the two ports are now going to work on this together (with the agency).”
Two technologies will be tested in the program, Cannon said.
One eliminates particulate matter by redirecting exhaust gases to the intake side of the entire and reentering the cylinders, which Cannon said also reduces temperatures that allow for less nitrogen oxide formation and will reduce greenhouse gas, he said.
The other is a retrofit with a multiple fuel flexible injection system with a gas supply. It will initially operate on diesel, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and ammonia, but will be capable of running multiple fuel types with minor modifications, according to the board report description. The retrofit does not require major changes to the existing…
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