LiqTech partners with Danbee Marine to market marine scrubber water treatment solutions in South Korea

The U.S.-based manufacturer of specialized marine filtration products and systems LiqTech International and South Korean maritime representative Danbee Marine have signed a partnership agreement to market LiqTech’s marine scrubber water treatment solutions within South Korea.

Danbee Marine focuses on delivering fuel treatment chemicals to reduce fuel consumption and emissions within the Korean maritime market, with a strong presence and foothold with major ship owners and shipyards.

Under the agreement, the South Korean firm will add LiqTech’s marine scrubber water treatment system offering to its existing product offerings.

According to LiqTech, its marine scrubber water treatment system for both closed-loop and hybrid scrubbers outperforms discharge limits regulated by the IMO Marpol VI. The solutions remove unburned fuel oil, soot particles, ash, and heavy metals from marine scrubber wastewater.

“We are excited to expand our presence in the Korean ship building market through this partnership agreement with Danbee Marine who has strong network in the South Korea marine market,” commented Fei Chen, CEO of LiqTech International.

“As the second largest ship building market in the world, we have had a presence with a small number of key customers, including Hyundai Merchant Marine over the years, but have lacked the large-scale presence across a wide variety of ship builders that Danbee can provide. I look forward to working with the capable team at Danbee to deliver our advanced and proven marine scrubber water treatment solutions to help ship owners and ship builders in South Korea fulfil regulatory requirements.”

A research published last year by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden found that water discharged from ships’ scrubbers, designed to clean exhaust gases, accounted for over 90% of the contaminants when assessing the contaminant load in four ports.

To tackle this problem, the Swedish government recently decided to go ahead with introducing a scrubber ban within the country’s waters. A proposal was submitted to prohibit discharges from open-loop scrubbers into water within Swedish maritime territory from July 1, 2025.

Discharges from all scrubbers into water will be prohibited in Sweden from January 1, 2029, the Government of Sweden said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the Danish government also prohibited the discharge of scrubber water from ships into the marine environment within 22 kilometers of the Danish coasts.