Chinese shipyard picks Wärtsilä’s scrubbers for two new RoPax vessels

March 10, 2022, by Ajsa Habibic

The Finnish technology group Wärtsilä has won a contract for its exhaust gas cleaning systems to be installed on two newbuild roll-on/roll-off passenger vessels (RoPax) at Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in China.

A worker doing the final cleaning of Wärtsilä scrubber before delivery to Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI). Courtesy of Wärtsilä

Under the contract signed in February 2022, Wärtsilä will fit and commission two 25-megawatt V-SOx hybrid scrubber systems, which can run in both open and closed-loop configurations, on each vessel.

With these systems, the RoPax vessels will immediately comply with the 0.5% Global Sulphur Cap and will also be futureproofed against impending regulatory change.

This is because Wärtsilä’s modular, lifecycle technologies can be upgraded to tackle other pollutants, including nitrogen oxide (NO_x), particulate matter (PM) and carbon dioxide (CO2), the company claims.

As informed, the delivery and installation of the four scrubber systems will be completed by the end of 2023 for both vessels.

Jiang Lei, purchasing manager, GSI, said: “It is a real pleasure for us to be working with Wärtsilä to fulfil this latest order on two RoPax vessels. We recognise the long-term potential of scrubbers for solving many crucial challenges in the shipping industry, and we are proud to carry out installations at our development-oriented shipyard.”

Wang Bin, area sales manager at Wärtsilä Exhaust Treatment in China, added: “We are very excited to start 2022 with this order of SOx scrubbers onboard two RoPax vessels being built by our partners at GSI. This agreement not only proves our long-term partnership with GSI, but also demonstrates the commercial and technical viability of scrubbers in shipping’s complex decarbonisation landscape.”

Aside from the Asia-Pacific region, Wärtsilä’s solutions were recently selected for Poland’s first LNG-fueled RoPax vessels.

To remind, the company secured a contract with Remontowa shipyard in Poland to supply engines, fuel storage and supply systems for the country’s first LNG-fueled RoPax vessels, paving the way for maritime decarbonisation.